


Hexed

by WritingElephant



Category: American Horror Story
Genre: AHS, Doppelganger, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-17
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-01 21:42:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 19
Words: 22,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2788724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritingElephant/pseuds/WritingElephant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Murder House/Coven crossover fic. Zoe finds out that she and Kyle are doppelgangers of Tate and Violet created by a hex. They are destined to have the same grim fates as Tate and Violet. So Zoe heads back to the murder house to fix Tate and Violets glum afterlives so she and Kyle might have a chance. Violate. Zyle. WARNINGS: Self harm, coarse language, and mild sex scenes. Was first published on fanfiction.net. COMPLETE.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Zoe Benson had not expected to spend her weekend like this.

She had not expected to end up in L.A. She had not expected to find herself staring up at some old, creepy, and apparently über haunted house contemplating whether or not to go in. She had not expected that the best, most important thing in her life would be at risk. But it was.

The air around her was cold. It targeted the few parts of exposed skin on her body and gnawed at it. She shifted some dead leaves around the pavement with her feet. Amongst their rustling she thought she heard a whisper.

_You’re gonna regret it._

Okay... creepy. But it was probably just the wind or her imagination or something that conjured the sound. No, that was stupid. With houses like these nothing was ever simple.

She thought about what had gotten her here and couldn’t help, but shake her head at herself. It all felt too silly and terrifying. However it had happened. She had certainly not dreamed it. And now the fate of her relationship lay on her shoulders.

It had all started the previous morning. She was in the greenhouse. Only Queenie, Cordelia, Myrtle, and herself were allowed in there now. Zoe spent a lot of time in there while Kyle was waiting over the girls. Since they had all come the green house was the only real quiet and peaceful place left in the academy.

...Which made it all the more startling when Myrtle came bursting through the door screaming out her name.

Zoe looked up with wide eyes to a frantic Myrtle rushing toward her. Zoe gulped, anticipating what news she might be about to receive.

“What is it? Myrtle, are you okay?” she exclaimed.

“Oh Zoe! Oh dearest Zoe!” Myrtle cried, coming to a stop in front of Zoe. “How will you ever forgive me? I just placed it.”

Myrtle took of her glasses and wiped tears from her eyes. Zoe knew she had probably ought to try and comfort Myrtle, but her curiosity and slight worry trumped her compassion.

“What is it?” she asked, trying to sound at least a little sympathetic.

“Many years ago I was in Los Angles visiting my sister-” Myrtle began.

“I didn’t know you had a sister” Zoe said, cutting her off.

“Well, she’s dead, you see” Myrtle explains.“Her ghost resides in Los Angles, in a large house where she used to work as a maid. This is a very nice house, my dear. But it is also a house of horrors!”

Myrtle huffed and shook her mane in disgust. Zoe waited for her to finish with the dramatics and continue.

“She was not the only ghost in this house.” She told Zoe. “In fact, there were very many. The house is infested with them! There were two young souls there, just a little younger than you, by the names of Tate Langdon and Violet Harmon. They had been lovers once, but they were staying a part for foolish reasons that were beyond me.”

Despite the guilty expression on Myrtle’s face, a hint of pride was added to her exterior as she said this. Zoe was instantly worried.

“It upset me. Seeing two people who were so obviously in love with each other deny it with such determination. It was plain stupidity! I tried and tried to convince them to just be together, but they were absurdly stubborn. After a while I had to give up, but I was so furious with them for being so very unromantic and I was wound up after a falling out with my sister... so I may have put a hex on them.” Myrtle said.

Zoe blinked.

“You what?” Zoe asked.

“I hexed them” Myrtle admitted. “The hex sent out a wave into the world. Now every few years doppelgangers are born and they are attracted to each other like magnets, but they all have as grim fates as Tate and Violet.”

Violet sat and stared for a moment not knowing exactly what to say. Yes, it was quite the story, but what did it have to do with her? When she asked Myrtle this, Myrtle shook her head as if Zoe had said something stupid.

“Oh dearest Zoe, don’t you see? You and Kyle are doppelgangers.” Myrtle said. “It was no wonder you looked so familiar when I first came to collect you.”

Zoe didn’t know how to react. She just sat there unmoving, unblinking. Myrtle began to panic at her silence.

“Oh my dear, I am so very sorry. You must know that I never intended you and lover any harm. Zoe, I-” Myrtle babbled.

“Can you undo it?” Zoe interrupted her, not meeting her gaze.

Myrtle seemed to shrink and waited a moment before saying: “No.” Zoe’s eyes filled with tears and she got up to storm out, but Myrtle grabbed her arm.

“Wait Zoe!” Myrtle begged. “I think there may be a way out of this.”

They looked at each other for a moment before Zoe sat down in a way that said “I’m listening.”Myrtle didn’t need any other signs.

“The hex entailed that the lovers would have the same fate as Tate and Violet's. If theirs were to change then so would yours.” Myrtle said. “Do you understand my meaning?”

“You want me to go get them back together?” Zoe asked and Myrtle nodded, trying not to cry.

Zoe took a deep breath. She knew there was something about this Myrtle wasn’t telling her. This was probably a lot more sinister than she was letting on, but somehow Zoe couldn't seem to care. Whatever Myrtle was sending her to was a chance and if that’s all there was then she would take it.

“Okay” She said.

                                                                                                                                . . .

 

Standing outside the house, looking up at it was hard to feel that optimistic. The house towered over her in a way that was somehow more intimidating than Ms. Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies. Perhaps its creepiness came from the fact that it was infested with ghosts. Zoe had only had one experience with ghosts; Fiona’s saxophone player. And that experience had not been a particularly good one.

But then Zoe wasn’t going to let that get in her way. Not when she had Kyle in the back, front, and sides of head at all times. She would do this if it killed her. But that didn’t mean she would find it particularly enjoyable.

_Here we go_ she thought, before taking a deep breath and starting toward the house.


	2. Chapter 1

Violet liked staring out the window. It made her feel as if she could go out if she wanted to. Like she was just checking if it looked like rain before she went for a walk. She had never been particularly drawn to the outdoors in life. There never seemed to be any reason to go outside when you had everything you needed inside. So the only reason she would ever really go outside was to smoke or go to school. She liked it that way.

But now that she knew she would never be able to walk any further than the gate she felt claustrophobic. Not being able to leave the house just felt unnatural. She was, after all, still human.

She knew he was there. He often watched her. Most of the time she just ignored him, but today he was feeling talkative.

“What?” she asked.

She turned away from the window to face him. Tate stood casually enough, leaned up against the wall, but she saw his eyes light up at being acknowledged by her.

“One of them is here. One of the doubles” Tate told her. Violet raised her eyebrows. “You remember when Moira’s kooky witch bitch sister?” Violet nodded.

“Remember how she left screaming that “there will be more of us” or something? Well, she was right. There is a girl standing out on the pavement who looks just like you.” He told her.

Well, that was a lot to take in. It was probably the only new thing she’d heard in... a while. A long time. It was a hard concept to wrap her head around.

“She really looks just like me?” Violet asked.

“Yeah... well she was a little older. And you’re prettier.” Tate said.

She looked over at him and he smiled at her with that cheeky smile. For a moment she smiled back. He looked so young when he smiled. So beautiful. It made it hard for her to remember all the awful things he had done. But it was that cautiousness and almost apologeticness in his eyes that brought her back down to earth; it had never been there before everything happened. Before she found out who he really was.

Her smile faded. Tate, seeing this, visibly deflated. Violet turned away and looked out the window again. She pressed her forehead up against the glass.

“You should probably go” Violet said, without looking at him.

He didn’t move. Violet sighed and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Go away, Tate” she commanded for the thousandth time, her voice cracking.

And he was gone.

                                                                                                                              . . .  

Tate wanted to smash his head against a wall. He supposed he should be grateful. That was more than he could get out of Violet most of the time. Sometimes when he came to her she would just cry and scream. Other times she would just look at him coolly and say those same godforsaken words.

_Go away, Tate._

It was only lately that she had started letting him talk to her a little more. It was almost worse than when she didn’t because her words were always empty. No emotion. He wondered if had had just imagined that she had ever loved him. But just then there had been that spark in her eyes. It hadn’t stayed long, but he had seen it. It had made him hopelessly ecstatic for those few short seconds, but when it was over he crashed down again and hard.

He had headed back down to the gate to get a better look at this girl. He was sitting on the wall when he heard a voice from behind him say: “boo.”

He turned around and slumped at what he saw; it was Hayden. Hayden had been following him around for ages. He wished she would just leave him alone. He thought perhaps that he should’ve been nicer to her. They were kind of in the same position. Stuck in the same house with the Harmon they loved, but could never have. They were just the same, but then... Tate had never really liked himself.

“What do you want, Hayden?” he asked, scowling at her.

“Jesus Christ. How come you’re so hostile?” Hayden asked, unfazed.

Hayden took a seat next to Tate on the wall eliciting a groan from him. She just grinned and went on mocking him.

“Did Vi Vi reject you again? Got you all Mr. Teenage Angst?” she giggled. “Don’t bother brooding. You won’t even have to bother with her now. You see that girl outside? There’s your replacement.”

Tate shook his head.

“She’s not Violet” he said. “Have you even looked at her?”

Hayden did a double take on the nervous looking girl standing on the other side of the road and shrugged.

“Looks pretty much the same to me” she said.

Tate didn’t reply. It wasn’t worth it. Hayden seemed upset at his lack of reaction.

“Well if you’re not interested in fucking this New Violet then do you wanna at least have a little fun with her?” Hayden asked.

Tate didn’t reply, but he raised a tentative eyebrow to show he was interested.

“She’s coming over to the house now.” Hayden informed him, gesturing to the girl who was now making her way across the road. “Let’s give her a welcoming party she’ll never forget.”

Despite himself Tate felt a wicked grin curl across his face to match Hayden’s. Perhaps she wasn’t so bad after all.


	3. Chapter 2

It wasn’t hard to pick a lock when you had magic on your side. Zoe had half expected the lock to be enchanted against telekinesis. She didn’t know why... she just found it hard to remember that ghosts were just people that had died, not mystical beings. Or at least...not really.

The door swung open invitingly and mounds of dust floated out. Zoe coughed a little and then stepped into the house. It looked like she had expected it to. It was dark, dank, and had that feel of a house that hadn’t been lived in for a while. It was what you would imagine a haunted house to look like except perhaps a bit more stylish.

Despite its macabre appearance Zoe was almost disappointed at the house. Wasn’t something meant to pop out and scare her? She stood in the centre of the foyer. She was about to call out for a ghost or something else that would no doubt make her feel stupid when she heard it. Someone was whistling.

She spun around, but she couldn’t find where it was coming from no matter how hard she peered into the shadows. She thought she recognised the tune. She had heard it in a scary movie she had watched when she was little. The familiar association with trauma made the empty whistling just that little bit more terrifying. Eventually Zoe couldn’t take it anymore.

“Who’s there?!” she demanded.

The whistling stopped.

There was silence.

Then she heard a crash from behind her. She pivoted to see what it was. There was nothing behind her. She thought they were just making noise again, but when she looked up she saw a pretty brown haired girl hanging from the chandelier, a noose around her neck. The girl’s eyes were wide open staring directly down at Zoe.

Zoe couldn’t help it; she screamed. She felt her legs start running, but before she could get anywhere near the door she slammed into something. She looked up to see she had just collided with Kyle. No not Kyle. He looked almost exactly like Kyle, but there was something about his feature that was a lot more childlike. There was something about his features that made him almost resemble a five year old, but contradictory to this there was something else in his eyes that she had never seen in Kyle’s. It was evil. He was fuming with it. Even when Kyle was killing someone he had always looked confused or hurt. He had never looked evil like that.

Acting on nothing more than instinct Zoe waved her hand and sent Kyle flying across the room without even touching him. She stood still for a moment; not quite sure what she had just done. Was he okay? Of course he wasn’t he was dead! But was he... hurt... or whatever happens to ghosts.

He just lay there unmoving for a few seconds. Zoe was really starting to feel terror curdle in her stomach before he sat up straight, then leant back against the wall, and gave her a devilish smirk.

“Holy shit” he said.

“Looks like we’ve got another hag on our hands”a voice came from behind.

Zoe turned around. The voice had come from the girl who had formerly been hanging from a noose and was now standing both feet on the ground, all of her weight shifted onto one leg, with an amused expression on her face. As startling as she was she wasn’t the most surprising thing Zoe saw when she turned around.

It looked as if she had earned herself a bit of an audience. Many ghosts had slipped their way into the room to see what was happening. The ghosts mostly looked either irritated or amused. There were two ginger kids that were both hanging on to some kind of wooden toy, giggling. Then there were the two men of extremely different builds, but that same look of sass on their faces. A woman who looked like Myrtle if she wore a maid’s uniform and looked more kindly was staring at her with an annoyed expression. While all these people shocked her they weren’t the most frightening of the bunch.

What really struck Zoe was the family in the centre of all this. There was the father. A large, strong looking man cradling a baby. Then there was the mother. She reeked of white picket fence. But in her arms was a teenage girl, looking stunned. It took a moment, but Zoe processed that she wasn’t looking in a mirror. This was her doppelganger: this was Violet


	4. Chapter 3

The mother had her wrapped in her arms protectively, but Violet looked wrong there. Not awkward like your typical angsty teenage would while being hugged by a parent; just wrong. Like she wasn’t meant to be there. Perhaps it was that she seemed too old to be cradled. Zoe could see this girl was only a teenager, but she had seen things... as you would in a house full of ghosts.

“What do you want with us?”

It was the father who spoke. Zoe suppressed the urge to step back. He was a very large man; intimidating. She chose to ignore him and focus back on the girl, Violet. Violet didn’t have the same look of menace on her face as the rest of the ghosts. Maybe she didn’t have anything to protect. Violet just looked surprised, awed, and slightly irritated.

The last thing Zoe expected Violet to do was unentangle herself from her mother, march right over to Zoe, and grab her arm. She started to pull Zoe up the stairs and the other ghosts moan in protest.

“I’m just going to have a private chat with my freaky doppelganger” Violet called, from the top of the stairs.

                                                                                                                                       . . .

 _Holy shit. It’s like looking at my reflection_ Zoe thought.

They had moved upstairs into a room that Violet said used to be her bedroom. It was hard to picture this room ever being lived in by anyone. There was a thick carpet of dust covering the floorboards a long with the walls. Cob webs hung from the roof like macabre party decorations. There was no light. Zoe didn’t think this room had ever seen much light.

However she didn’t think Violet had seen much of anything outside this house. To be trapped so young startled Zoe. Especially knowing that this girl will never get out. Never see or do anything. But then this Violet did not seem like a child; there was a sort of hardness in her eyes that ruled that out. Zoe supposed she had seen a lot of freaky shit in a house like this.

They sat in the darkest corner of the room, legs folded back leant up against the musty walls. They didn’t say anything; just stared at each other in astonishment trying to spot the differences. Zoe felt as if she was being jolted awake when Violet said:

“So, what exactly do you want from us?”

Zoe bit her lip. She felt stupid for not coming up with a back story. Or some kind of a plan at least. Then again all this had been on fairly short notice. It wasn’t as if she’d had a lot of time to think about it. Still how could she answer Violet’s question? I need you to get back together with the creepy guy downstairs so I can live happily ever after with my zombie boyfriend? No Zoe didn’t think that would work so well.

Zoe shrugged. Violet rolled her eyes and got to her feet.

 _Great_ Zoe thought. _Now she’s frustrated._

“You are so full of shit.” Violet said. “But that’s okay. I don’t wanna find out what your name is or where you came from. If you’re smart you’ll get out of here and never come back. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but people tend to die in this house.”

Violet crossed the room to leave, but Zoe called out to stop her. She prayed that whatever she was about to say would make sense. Or at least be somewhat coherent.

“Wait!” she spluttered. “That boy downstairs. The one I sent flying. My boyfriend looks just like him in the same way I look just like you.”

Violet didn’t say anything for a moment. Zoe searched for something in her face. Something that would tell her something. Anything! Then she finally spoke.

“Wow... then he must be a monster as well.”

And with that Violet left, leaving Zoe alone in the once-upon-a-time bedroom.

                                                                                                                                       . . .

Zoe groaned out loud as she pushed the front door open. That had not gone very well. Right now Zoe just wanted to get back to her motel room, have a sleep, and try to work out how she would ever fix this. It was clear Violet wasn’t too impressed by her and she had certainly not had a first good impression with Tate. Whatever. She there was nothing she could do right now she just had to go and try and think up a better plan.

She walked down the path to the gate, but then froze and gasped at what she saw.

                                                                                                                                      . . .

“Myrtle!” Zoe hissed into her phone. “There is a woman living next door to the murder house that looks exactly like Fiona!”

“Why yes, my dear.” Myrtle said, nonchalantly. “This is a very common curse. It happens to a lot of people. In fact, I seem to remember a ghost in that house who looked like the mirror image of that Misty Day girl. With the way Fiona acted in her life can you honestly think she wouldn’t have all these little ones put on her? There are dozens of Fionas!”

Zoe was finding it hard to walk in a straight line from her car to her motel room with all these big revelations.

“So what are these Fionas all destined to be? Dead?”

“No, dearest.” Myrtle said, a hint of melancholy in her voice. “They are all destined to be evil.”

“Oh...” Zoe said, not sure what else to say.

“But then Fiona could have changed that...”Myrtle said, regret thick in her voice. “Anyway it is of no matter. Did you see them?”

“Yeah. But I don’t think I made much progress.” Zoe said.

“Don’t worry, dear. I best be going now, but good luck.” Myrtle said. “Oh! I almost forgot! Did you see my sister?”

“Yes” Zoe told her.

“Oh well how was she? Did you talk to her?” Myrtle demanded, before Zoe had a chance to say anything else.

“I don’t know. I didn’t really have the time” Zoe said.

Zoe could almost feel Myrtle slump through the phone.

“Alright then. Goodbye, Zoe.” Myrtle said, before hanging up the phone.

Zoe exhaled. She was in her motel room now, sitting on the end of her bed. She felt heavy with worry that she might just not be able to dig herself out of this one. She looked back down at her phone and nearly tossed it across the room. She had missed seven calls from Kyle. He had obviously mastered the use of his cell phone finally. She had been avoiding thinking about Kyle since all this happened. She knew it was messed up, but she didn’t tell him she was going. That was an awful thing to do and she knew it. She just couldn’t face him. She couldn’t tell him how much trouble they were in... And if she was being totally honest with herself she couldn’t handle telling him that the whole reason for their relationship was because of some dumb hex.

She put her phone down and fell back on the bed. She’d call him later.


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNING: SELF HARM IN THIS CHAPTER.

“I’m thinking about fucking Hayden” Tate announced.

Tate strolled into Ben’s office to find him stood by the window like usual. Tate thought Ben always stood and looked outside like that now was because now that all the furniture was gone it was the only place he could stand that didn’t make him look like Violet. Whenever Tate got a peek into her bedroom she would always be slumped on the floor leaning back against the wall, looking kind of like a giant ragdoll. She always seemed so... defeated. Maybe Ben was trying to keep from being like that.

Ben turned around, but rather than giving Tate one of the shocked, disapproving looks he would have sent during his early days in the house, he simply sighed. Tate and Ben had developed somewhat of a relationship. Tate wasn’t sure if it was a patient-therapist type relationship or a father-son type one or something in between. It was hard to make anything black and white in a place like that.

Basically Tate would come into the office where Ben would spend his time when he wasn’t nursing the forever-baby or his forever-fight with Vivian and vent. Eventually, Ben got used to Tate and there even felt a certain degree of affection for him. It was funny that Ben seemed to be able to tolerate Tate so well after everything that had happened. But how can you stay mad with people you have to spend eternity with?

“Oh really?” Ben said, yawning. “And why is that?”

“She keeps following me around. I think she’d be up for it.” Tate shrugged.

He was pacing. He really wished they still had that rocking chair in here. That would help him calm down. He needed that steady rhythm of just back-and-forth-back-and-forth-back-and-forth-back- and-forth.

“And you have some big desire to have sex with Hayden?” Ben asked.

Tate was just getting irritated. How come Ben could stand there so calm like that? How come he wasn’t bursting with painful energy like Tate was? How come Ben wasn’t stomping all over the room like a nervous wreck? No Tate was annoyed with Ben. He was very frustrated with him. He stopped pacing and turned to face him.

“I don’t know!” he shouted. “I’m bored! I’m horny!!!”

“And what else is new?” Ben asked, cocking and eyebrow.

Ben didn’t seem to be getting effected by Tate’s rage and that just provoked him further.

“I’m sick of jerking off!” he shouted. “Every day I get up jerk off some more then I go back to sleep. It’s fucking tedious. Why not fuck Hayden? I wish they’d just knock this goddamned house down!”

He stopped to catch his breath. Ben was just looking at him. He stood there and looked back at Ben for a while and felt his anger slowly fizzle out leaving that same dull pain in the pit of his stomach. There was no point in thrashing like this. He was still gonna be trapped.

He collapsed to his knees and wept.

“I’m so lonely” he muttered, shoving his head in between his legs and covering it with his arms protectively.

“I know” Ben said, sinking down to sit next to Tate.

“I just really miss her” he said, forcing his head back up.

“Do you think this doppelganger occurrence has brought up some of your feelings about the whole situation?” Ben asked, calmly.

“Yes... Not really... I don’t know.” Tate shrugged and Ben just stared at him expectantly for a moment. “She spoke to me for a moment before and she was really there.”

“And then?” Ben asked.

“And then she just told me to go away again. Like always.” Tate said. He wiped the tears off his face and crossed his legs.

At least he could still cry; that was something. It had been a while since he had heard Violet crying. She would scream all the time, but she hadn’t cried in who knows how long.

“Look, its Violet’s decision to not want to be in a relationship with you” Ben told him.

“I know” Tate said, nodding, without energy.

“You can’t change that” Ben stated, firmly. “But I think you are in need of closure. Maybe you should try talking to Violet?”

“She won’t let me” Tate said, hopelessly.

“Well, maybe if you make it clear to her that you want nothing more from her than to sort out whatever has lied between you these passed years. Tell her that it’s too painful for you. Violet will understand. I think it will be good for both of you.” Ben said.

Tate thought about Ben’s plan. It would be a different approach and something about telling Violet all he wanted from her was to gain closure felt dishonest. But he would give it a go.

“Okay” He said, getting to his feet. “Thanks.”

Ben nodded to show that he was welcome and Tate headed for the door, but then he stopped.

“Oh and Dr. Harmon?” he called.

“Yes, Tate?” Ben said.

“I’m sorry I said I wanted to fuck your old mistress” he apologised. Ben shook his head, but a hint of a smile played around the corner of his lips.

“That’s alright, Tate.” he said.

Tate nodded and left the room. See, his tact was improving.

                                                                                                                                        . . .

It took him a while to work up the courage to go to Violet’s room and confront her. That upset him. She was becoming something that made him nervous. There was something very sad about that, Tate thought.

When he finally got up there she wasn’t even there. Tate stared at the empty room in disappointment. He was about to leave, but then he heard a creaking noise come from the bathroom. He smiled in relief and headed over to the bathroom.

He wanted to see her before she saw him. In all the years he had been stuck in this house he had learnt how to creep around without anyone noticing him. Silently he cracked the door; just wide enough for him to peek through. What he saw struck him hard. It was like going back in time.

Rather than a Razor she was using a piece of broken glass that had probably come from one of the windows. Everything else looked the same, though. That long red line across her wrist. The few dots of the blood on the sink, dark red contrasting sinisterly and beautifully with the clear white. The little frown of concentration on her face, her hair falling around her like a curtain. It was as if it had been set up to look like the first time he had ever spoken to her. Like someone was playing a sick joke.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” He screamed.

She spun around and her eyes widened. She opened her mouth to say something. Probably to tell him to go away again. Well Tate wasn’t about to let that happen. Not this time.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” He repeated, cutting her off. “What are you doing?”

He stormed across the room and grabbed her arms, hand encircling her wound. He pressed her back into the sink. She tried to struggle away from him, but he was stronger.

“That’s none of you business.” She snapped. “What are you even doing in here?”

“None of my business!” he fumed, ignoring her question. “None of my business. FUCK, VIOLET!”

When he shouted she cowered slightly, bending her head away. He lowered his voice, but all the rage and panic was still there.

“You promised me you’d never do that do yourself again. You promised me!” he accused.

“After everything you’ve done you honestly think anything I ever promised you is valid anymore?” she spat.

It was like she had punched him in the gut. He felt himself shake.

“Violet... Violet please don’t hurt yourself.” He was begging now.”Please Violet. I love you.”

He leaned in and rested his head against her collarbone. She started to struggle against him again.

“Get off me!”she yelped. “You want me to stop cutting? Fine. But you have to stay away from me, Tate. I can’t take you being around all the time.”

He lifted his head so he could look at her. This was his last chance.

“Violet, please-” he begged.

“I was watching your son through the window the other day.” She said, cutting him off. “He’s almost our age now. I think he killed another one of Constance’s gardeners. He looks so much like you. I see you when I look at him. When I look at you I see death. You remind me of all the bad things that have happened. I can’t handle that, Tate.”

Violet was looking at him like she expected him to argue with her on this, but Tate said nothing. He was hurting her. She was hurting. And now he had to put a stop to that no matter how bad it hurt him. He leaned in and kissed her gently on the forehead.

“Okay. That’s fine. I’ll stay away.” He said, quietly.

He stepped back from her and dropped her wrists. He still had her blood on his hand. It would be all that was left of her in a second. He turned and headed for the exit, but paused in the door way.

“I love you” he said. He turned his head to see how she would react to this. All he saw was her standing there, emotionless, just waiting for him to get out. So he sucked her in one more time, turned away, and left without looking back.

Little did he know the second he was out of sight Violet broke down in tears.


	6. Chapter 5

The basement had always been a place of comfort to Tate. It was his place in the house. Everyone had their places. Violet would be in her bedroom. Ben would be in his office. Vivian and Moira would be in the kitchen (unless Moira was feeling slutty, that was.) Gladys and Maria would be in the bathroom. Nora would be in her own private corner of the basement. Beau would be in the attic. Chad would stalk through the lobby furiously most of the time. The list went on and on.

Tate’s place had always been in the basement amongst the shadows. It had always calmed him to be down there before, but he was starting to notice all the things that Violet didn’t like about it; and they were bothering him. It couldn’t be natural, could it? Someone spending so much time in such a dark, lonely, miserable place. but that was where Tate felt at home. What did that say about him?

_Monster._

He clapped his hands in front of his face. It was something Ben had told him to do when he could feel himself sinking into that place. The place that made him explode. He had to stay away from that place; that was for sure.

Hayden sent him a funny look. She had been sitting next to him for a while. They had their backs leant up against the wall and were sitting side by side. She was babbling on and on about Violet. Apparently she had overheard their little discussion earlier and she was simply refusing to let it go. You’d think that after being in the same situation he is now she would know that sometimes he just didn’t want to talk about it. But then again she seemed to take joy in annoying him.

“Y’know, I just don’t get her” Hayden exclaimed. “She acts all high and mighty up in that big bedroom, keeping it all to herself. When is she gonna realise she’s just as dead as the rest of us and take what she can get.”

“Hayden...” Tate growled.

“Well I’m just saying it’s not exactly as if we all have someone to love us. And doesn’t she get horny? Her vagina must be made of stone.” Hayden went on.

Tate was still annoyed, but he couldn’t help smirking a little. That certainly wasn’t true.

“And then there’s you!” she groaned. “You’re just as bad as her!”

Tate frowned.

“How?”

“All you do is brood over her and stare after her like a cute, pathetic puppy.” She complained.

“I thought you’d know more than anyone that you can’t just stop loving someone.” Tate shot back at her, raising his eyebrows in challenge.

“I’m not still in love with Ben” she said, coolly and automatically. “What I can’t get over is that one minute he can be making love to me and telling me I’m the most beautiful person in the world, then next minute he decides to be a family man and tosses me aside. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that happen to you but it is very disorientating and humiliating. And now I have to stay in the same house as him for all eternity and every day I get reminded that I am nothing to him and I never even was.”

Tate wasn’t sure what to say. Hayden’s little sob story was distressing, but she said it all in such blank, emotionless way. There was this look in her eyes, this far away look as if she was slipping away. He could identify with that all too well, but then after what Hayden has said he was starting to think they weren’t the parallels he thought they were. They were just both lonely. They both just needed someone to love them so badly.

“Besides at least I make an attempt to do something around here. Believe me all that hurts like hell, but I don’t let it stop me from finding my release.” She informed him. “All you do is mope around all day.”

“You think...” Tate said, looking at her from under his eyelashes. “...I should be looking for release?”

He saw Hayden notice the change in his tone. He saw the surprise on her face and he watched it turn into a seductive little grin.

“Oh Tate” she purred, placing her hand on his shoulder. “We all need release sometimes.”

That was enough of an indication for Tate and he really did not feel like beating around the bush, so he grabbed Hayden around the neck and kissed her roughly. Hayden gasped in surprise, but didn’t stop him. She kissed him back. They clumsily shifted so that Hayden was lying on her back and Tate wedged himself in between her legs. He could feel his savage, animalistic side of him taking him over and braced himself. Feeling like that scared him as much as it made him feel invincible. This was obviously not going to be like it had with Violet. He wasn’t going to feel happy or loved and he knew he would have no desire to be gentle. If he was going to go through with this he just had to check something.

“Hayden?” he said.

“What?” she groaned from underneath him, desperate for that release she apparently craved so much.

“I will never love you” he said, firmly. “And if we’re gonna do this I need you to promise me you will not fall in love with me.”

Hayden’s eyes which had been squeezed closed, snapped open. She seemed to register how urgent this was to Tate and probably even to herself. Looking him in the eye she nodded. Tate let out a breath. Well, that was that. So, in the dark, filthy, gloomy basement they fucked each other. He thrusted into her without mercy and her ass scraped against the concrete floor. When he reached his climax it was not Hayden’s name he called out, but Violets. Then when they finished he didn’t hold her, or kiss her; he just rolled off her and left her lying on her own in the middle of that dark, cold, god forsaken room and went somewhere she couldn’t see him cry.

                                                                                                                               . . .

Zoe had been watching Ghost Hunters. She knew she was procrastinating and it was bad. She soothed herself somewhat by telling herself this was research, but that was obviously an excuse. The truth was she was avoiding the murder house. And she was avoiding failure. But most of all she was avoiding Kyle. Around her seventh episodes she knew she couldn’t keep going like this. She had to do something or everything was going to fall to pieces around her.

Begrudgingly, she grabbed her phone and checked it. the number of missed calls she’d had from Kyle hurt to think about. Taking a deep breath she listened to the first voicemail.

_Zoe please answer your phone. Where are you? Answer your phone! Please Zoe... I miss you-_

And that was about all Zoe could handle before she clicked out of the voice mail and placed her phone as far away on the bed as it could be from her. Alright, so she couldn’t talk to Kyle. Looks like she was going back to the Murder House. Cool.

                                                                                                                                      . . .

When she got back Tate was sitting on the brick wall by the gate. He looked like crap. She didn’t think that ghosts could get ruffled, but apparently so. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair was completely chaotic. He was still very good looking, though oddly enough not in the same way Kyle was. Kyle looked kind and sweet. He was cute. This boy however had a wickedness in his eyes and Zoe couldn’t work out if it was mischievous or sadistic.

He regarded her appearance with a swift once over and then grinned at her.

“Back again, huh?” he asked. “You made quite the impression with us all last time you swung by.”

“You’re one to talk” she said, throwing him an accusing look.

Noticing the reproachfulness in her voice Tate sighed and launched himself off the wall. He came up and stood closer to her.

“I’m sorry for scaring you yesterday” he apologised, offering his hand to shake. “I’m Tate Langdon.”

If Tate hadn’t sounded so sincere Zoe wouldn’t have shaken his hand, but the thing is he did sound really sincere. Plus he looked so much like Kyle... and it wasn’t like Zoe had any other potential ally ghosts. She had to cave.

“That’s alright. Just don’t make a habit of it” she shook his, hand but made sure to send him a strict look. “I’m Zoe and... I’m also sorry for throwing you into a wall yesterday.”

Tate laughed making his dimples visible. He looked so much like Kyle! But there was just something that just didn’t match up.

“That’s alright. I don’t hold grudges.” Tate said, throwing a quick glance back at the house. “So, now that we’re all friends how would you like your very own tour of L.A’s most notorious haunted buildings?”

Zoe was unsure if this was a jackpot or a walkway straight into danger, but either way she said: “Okay... sure,” took the arm that Tate offered her, and let him lead her into the house.


	7. Chapter 6

There was only one thing Zoe was thinking looking up at the ladder Tate was pulling down from the ceiling: No way am I going up here.

“After you” Tate said, gesturing for Zoe to climb up into the attic.

“Um... no thanks. I’m good.” Zoe said.

“C’mon. Just climb up.” Tate said.

“According to most horror movies climbing into creepy dark places with a ghost for an escort is probably not such a good idea.” Zoe stated, wryly.

“Yeah, well lucky for you this isn’t a horror movie” Tate pointed out. “Seriously up there is the coolest place in the house. We hid stuff up there we wanted to keep when they cleared everything out.”

That did sound promising. She was finding it hard making progress with Tate. They were getting a long alright, but she didn’t know how she could get to the point of asking him to get back together with his ex-girlfriend without it completely back firing on her. Seeing their things might give her a better insight on them? She might be able to figure out a good way to approach the whole situation?

Oh God, she was really desperate.

“Alright then” she said, hoisting herself onto the ladder.

She climbed up and immediately felt stupid for being so overly cautious. She didn’t even find the attic creepy... or well she didn’t until the sound of rattling chains coming from behind her. She spun around and sucked in her breath when she saw this... thing crawling steadfastly toward her. Tate merely gave an amused smile.

“Go away, Beau” he said.

And in the blink of an eye it was gone. Zoe turned towards Tate her eyes shooting furious astonishment at him.

“Sorry about Beau” he said, smirking at her. “He likes meeting new people.”

“That thing... it died in here?” she asked. 

Tate flinched at her words and Zoe for a moment worried that she had overstepped her mark.

“Yeah” was all Tate said.

Zoe couldn’t decipher Tate’s sudden sombreness, so she decided to busy herself with observing the large pile of the dead’s belongings in the corner. Everything was stacked on top of everything. There were suitcases stuffed with clothes, A few board games, some scuffed up old books, and an Ouija board. No matter how much she poked around she couldn’t find anything that would bare Tate and Violet’s souls (pardon the pun) as she hoped they would.

Eventually she just stood up straight and turned to face Tate. He was watching her with an intent expression. Zoe wondered what on earth he could be looking for.

“Interesting” she stated. “Do you want to play a game, Tate?”

“Okay...”he said, shooting her a funny look. “We have Scrabble, Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders-”

“No actually I was thinking we could play a different sort of game” she said, taking a seat on the ground.

“Hmm... I’m intrigued. What do you have in mind?” he asked, sitting down across from her.

“Truth or dare” Zoe said.

As soon as the words passed through her lips she had to fight from cringing at her own idiocy. But what else could she do? The sad truth of the situation was that the only thing she could think of doing to get answers out of him was playing middle schooler’s game.

“Sounds fun” Tate said. “You go first. Truth or dare, little witch?”

She answered truth and Tate smirked.

“Why exactly do you keep coming to this house?”

Zoe hesitated. Not sure whether to be honest or not.

“Curiosity” she eventually said.

“Curiosity killed the cat, you know.” Tate stated.

“Well, then I guess its good I’m not a cat.” She fired back.

Tate laughed and Zoe was surprised by how genuine it seemed. She awkwardly tucked some hair behind her ear.

“So... truth or dare?” she asked.

“Dare” he said.

Zoe hadn’t thought about dares. She had been so fixated on getting knowledge out of him that she forgot there was a whole other option to the game.

“Do a handstand.” She commanded, unable to think of any other requests.

He easily complied and as he did so groaned: “Boring.” He landed back on his feat with a thump.

“Truth or dare?” Tate asked, his smile sadistic.

“Dare” she said.

Zoe had always thought that choosing truth was the safer option. But this particular game was changing her mind. Tate’s smile curved wider.

“Show me one of your magic tricks.” He requested. “Something dangerous.”

His words spiked memories that Zoe normally tried to avoid. It all came back in flashes: the feeling of the gate literally going through her. Waking up and out of nowhere being in the green house. That look of pure love Kyle gave her when he got to see her. She blinked it all away. No good came of thinking about all that. And she needed to stay focused. She only had to think for a moment before fulfilling Tate’s request.

“Ow!” he yelled out. He smacked the bottom of his jeans where she had set them on fire until he went out. He looked at her in disbelief.

“Yesterday you throw me into a wall. Today you set me on fire!” he exclaimed.

“Sorry, I didn’t think ghosts could get hurt” she said, shrugging innocently.

“Sure you didn’t.” He said, shooting her a look. “Well, it was pretty dangerous. I’ll give you that."

“Truth or dare?” Zoe said for what felt like the millionth time.

“Truth” he said.

Zoe couldn’t believe it. She mentally fist pumped.

“Oh Okay... um... Tate... is there something going on between you and Violet?” she asked.

She couldn’t believe her own stupidity. She had been caught off guard, but why did she have to phrase the question that way? Couldn’t she have just ask him if he was seeing anybody like a normal person? She saw Tate’s eyes widen at her question and braced herself for his response. You blew it she thought.

“Why would you ask that?” he questioned, coolly.

“I... I don’t know.” Zoe replied in a small voice.

“Yes you do. Why did you ask that?” he demanded.

Zoe began to panic. She had made a big mistake. Tate’s voice had changed. All the friendliness his tone had held before was gone.

“There’s a boy I know. He looks like you in the same way I look like Violet.” She said, watching Tate carefully. “I love him.”

“So you assumed something was going on between me and Violet?” he said, his voice dripping with patronization.

“Well is there?” she asked.

She had done the thing she was desperately trying to avoid doing; she had far overstepped her mark. She sent him a desperate look. She tried to communicate to him with her eyes that she wasn’t trying to pry or interfere (even if she was.) But with the way Tate was looking at her she didn’t think any of that would make a difference. She thought that she might just be about to see Tate Langdon snap. And that terrified her more than she thought it would. But then his face relaxed and after a moment Tate broke eye contact with her and took a deep breath.

“Look” he began. “If I were you I would stop poking around here. Showing you around here was fun at all, but just don’t come back. There are people in this house who won’t be as gracious as me. They’ll just kill you.”

Zoe looked at her feet.

“Trust me, Witch” he told her. “Being kind is not something that comes easily to me with most people, but I’m trying to help you. Don’t get yourself killed. Stay away from this house.”

“I can’t” she told him, her tone almost apologetic.

Tate shook his head at her and she looked away from him. When she looked back he was gone.

. . .

Zoe couldn’t believe herself.

She had failed. She had failed at something that was absolutely detrimental she didn’t fail at. She had gone into this whole thing without a plan and made the worst decisions possible. She felt terrible, but she wasn’t about to give up. There had to be something she could do to get Tate and Violet to get back together. She would make sure they did or she would die trying. She climbed down from the attic feeling unconfident in her sentiment, but nevertheless determined. She was thinking about leaving. One thing was for sure: she wasn’t getting Tate and Violet back together today. But to her surprise when she turned around Violet was leaning against the wall, watching her.

“I thought I told you to stay away from here.” Violet said.

“Well, sorry, but I had to come back.” Zoe responded, haughtily.

“Do you have a death wish or something? Because honestly I’d look for somewhere else to off yourself. We’re full here.” Violet snapped. 

Zoe opened her mouth, but then shut it again. What could she say to that?

“You were hanging out with Tate up there?” Violet asked, gesturing towards the attic.

Zoe took this as a very good opportunity to make Violet jealous. She knew how powerful jealousy could be.

“Yeah. So what?” Zoe said, flippantly.

She shifted all her weight onto one leg in an attempt to seem sassy.

“So you’re stupid.” Violet deadpanned. “I’m sure you think Tate is a great buddy to have. He’s charming and probably reminds you of your little boy toy, but why don’t you try googling him? Then maybe it’ll settle in that you need to stay the fuck away from here.”

And with that Violet stormed away.

                                                                                                                                      . . .

The whole way back to the motel room Zoe was riddled with anxiety. No, to say she was anxious would be an understatement. She had to know what Violet meant. She felt stupid for not doing internet research in the first place, but it just hadn’t occurred to her. When she arrived at the motel she practically sprinted from her car to her room. Her hands shook as she unlocked the door and forced the door open –but then stopped in the doorway, frozen in shock.

Kyle was there.


	8. Chapter 7

When Kyle first came back his first instinct had been to kill. And he did. Hard and fast. But then he saw her. The girl with the big, pretty, sad eyes and all of a sudden those instincts were gone. The rage and the confusion was still there, but he couldn’t connect it to her. He didn’t know why, but he knew he could never hurt this girl.  
Now he was looking at the same girl standing in the doorway of the motel room. She was as beautiful and sad and scared as ever, but Kyle knew he had to be angry at her now. He was not an intelligent creature, not anymore, but he knew that much. She had become his world and then she just left and didn’t even tell him. Then he found out the reason why. She should have told him. He had a right to know; he was as much a part of it as she was.   
But boy, was it hard to be mad at her when he had missed her so much and she was standing there looking so beautiful.   
. . .  
Kyle turned to look at Zoe and she realized how very badly she had screwed up. Hurt was written all over Kyle’s face. Zoe didn’t know what to do. She shuffled her feet awkwardly.  
“Kyle...” she said.  
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded.   
Zoe looked away from him. She couldn’t take seeing him mad like that. She didn’t know what to tell Kyle. She wasn’t even really sure what the truth of the situation was.  
“I’m sorry, Kyle. I thought I could just come and fix it all.” She mumbled. It was a lame excuse and they both knew it  
“You didn’t think I should know about this?” he exclaimed. “It isn’t just about you.”  
“I know... I know. I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to worry you.” She said, pathetically.  
Kyle gave her look that showed he thought that was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard before turning away from her. “If that were true then you would have answered my calls.”  
They had a moment of silence. How could Zoe respond?   
“How did you find me?” she asked, trying to change the subject.  
“Cordelia told me about the hex and where you were.” He said, his back still to her.  
“Oh” Zoe said.  
And they were silent again. Zoe sighed.  
Slowly she approached Kyle until there was only a small gap of space separating them.   
“I’m sorry.” She whispered. “You were wrong and I was right. I’m sorry.”  
She leaned forward and kissed a trail from his shoulder to his neck. She heard his breathing become raspy and she smiled. But then he grabbed her and threw her down on the bed and that smile was wiped right of her face.  
. . .  
She wasn’t being fair. She kept kissing him and whispering I’m sorry over and over again. He was mad at her and they weren’t done talking, but oh god he needed her. His poor, oblivious body craved her, but had been deprived of her for too long. He tried one more time. He tried not too just melt into her. He tried and he failed.  
He turned around and grabbed her. He pushed her down on the bed and kissed her hard, his tongue forcing its way between her teeth. Zoe let out a little gasp of surprise, but soon responded by wrapping her legs around his waist. They got rid of their pesky clothes and he pounded into her all the anger and loneliness and hurt and love he had felt since this all started. When came, he came with tears. He saw one of them fall down and hit Zoe in the face. He collapsed down on the bed beside her and she held him.  
. . .   
Later that night they were in the same place. They lay side by side on the bed. Kyle was asleep, but Zoe was wide awake. She couldn’t sleep. This whole situation just felt wrong. Kyle had every right to be mad at her, but she had manipulated him into silence. She was starting to think that was all their relationship was: a manipulation.  
Was she taking advantage of him? She remembered what he had been like when she first met him. He had seemed hopeful. He no doubt would have had bright future ahead of him. But she had ruined all that for him. Now he was a pathetic slave to her coven because he loved her and was too slow to realise that she wasn’t the only thing in the world.  
She reached over and traced the scar around his neck.   
“I love you” she whispered to his sleeping form.  
And she did. She hoped that would make up for something.


	9. Chapter 8

Violet had wanted Tate gone for a long time. She had thought that after he finally just left her alone she would be able move on from her feelings about him. She blamed the fact that she was unable to stop loving him on the fact that he was always around her somewhere. After all how could she be expected to move on from him if he was constantly lingering in the background?   
But now she had what she wanted. He was gone. She hadn’t been prepared for the weight of his absence. That feeling that it was all over. Officially. That she would never see her face again. That was surprisingly unbearable.   
So she had decided to swap places with Tate. That day she was going to follow him around. Then her witchy-doppelganger thing showed up and Tate and she had a lovely old time together. Violet couldn’t understand why this made her so angry, but it did.   
When that girl came down from the attic Violet made sure to let her know what a monster Tate really was. She also made sure that Tate would hear everything she was saying. She wasn’t sure why. What Violet was really trying to do was remind herself of all the reasons she should have been able to let go of Tate. She just had to go and hurt him while she was at it, didn’t she? Or maybe she was just trying to get his attention.  
She was disgusted with herself yet again. What the fuck was wrong with her? He had hurt people she cared about. He had killed a lot of people. Violet decided the unconditional love was a very evil thing. Tate Langdon needed to be punished. It was only right. He had hurt so many people and he couldn’t just get away with that. As much as Violet loved him she knew he wasn’t special. He was just a normal person who did shitty things. There had to be consequences for that. He had to feel pain. But all she wanted to was to make him happy.  
It was unnatural. It was evil. And she was a sinner. And with all this lack of exercise she was becoming weak. She would always fall back into him like an addict or something. Still she tried, but she didn’t last long. In fact she only lasted till later that night.  
She was in her bedroom like always. Sat in the back of the room; back leant against the wall. She sucked in a breath.  
“Tate!” she called.  
She didn’t say it too loud... she knew he’d hear her. He was there in a matter of seconds, standing in the door way, not quite knowing what to do. Violet stood up and crossed the room till she was standing close to him. But not touching him. She couldn’t give in that much.  
“I’m sorry.” She said. “I didn’t mean what I said to that witch girl. Even if it was true... I don’t hate you.”   
She saw Tate swallow and it was only then that she realized she was crying. She hadn’t wanted to cry in front of him. She had wanted to be the strong one. Even if he was scarred and evil and sad, she was the one who always ended up getting upset. Like some sick little parody of a damsel in distress.  
“Did you bring me here to tell me that?” Tate asked. The question was not unkind or facetious. He was simply asking her what she was allowing to happen that night.  
“Maybe” she said. “But I don’t want you to go.”   
She reached out and took his hand. He tried to draw back, but she held on tight.  
“Violet, what-” he started.  
“I don’t know” she yelled. “Look I’m not making you any promises for tomorrow. Will you just stay tonight? Please.”  
Her voice was embarrassingly pleading, but she didn’t care. She stood feeling completely exposed to Tate as he watched her. Eventually, he nodded. She pulled him to the other end of the room and they lay on the floor. She didn’t let go of his hand, but she made sure that she wasn’t touching him anywhere else.  
“I love you” she choked. “I didn’t stop loving you.”  
She saw his eyes shut, as if he was savouring her words.   
“I love you too” he said. Yeah, she knew that.   
“Let’s go to sleep.” Violet said.  
“Okay.” Tate said.  
And they slept.


	10. Chapter 9

She woke up the next morning wrapped in his arms and wondering what the hell she had been thinking.  
At first it felt nothing but natural. Being with him had always felt just so right and for a moment Violet honestly thought she was just a teenage girl who had fallen asleep next to her boyfriend. But then the truth seeped its way back in through her eyelids. All the darkness, the brutality, the evil came rushing back in and Violet was hit with a wave of heavy self loathing.  
She shifted and twisted till she was out of his grip, luckily for her not waking him in the process. She should have just got up and left straight away, but in her selfishness she remained to get take one last look at his face.   
He looked so bloody innocent. He was always like that. She wondered how someone who had seen so much shit and done so many shitty things could look that childlike. It didn’t make sense.   
But then she remembered that evil glint in his eyes.   
She shook her head. She needed to think about some things. She left the room.  
. . .   
She had ended up in the kitchen half watching Moira clean. They didn’t have anything in the way of cleaning products or mops or brooms or dusters or anything. But Moira still like to pretend she was cleaning up the hollow house. Perhaps she was just trying t keep herself busy. Either way no one commented on it.  
It was the worst kind of irony that Vivian had ended up coming to sit in the kitchen with Violet. She had been in a mental battle between everything Tate had done and her need for Tate. She was trying to figure out whether she could ever justify going back to him. The odds already weren’t looking good when her mother walked in.  
Her mother, one of Tate’s victims. Another person he had shamelessly stolen from and ruined. She loved her mother and if she was normal and good then she would hate Tate, but no. She supposed this was what it was like to love unconditionally. It was pretty damn shit. But despite her love for him seeing her mother reminded her of all the reasons she had left him. It’s not right that he did all these awful things to good people and get to live happily ever after with her. He needed to be punished.  
But had he perhaps been punished enough already?  
She had no way of knowing. She wasn’t God... but then there didn’t really seem to be a God anyway. Either that or He had forgotten about everyone in that house.  
After she had parted with her mother she descended up the staircase to see Tate not really sure what she wanted to say to him, by the time she got to the top step Hayden was there, scowling at her. Violet hastily stepped away from the stairs. She had learned from her Dad that it was best not to spend too much time on staircases when Hayden was around.  
“What do you want?” Violet spat.   
“So you spread your legs for him yet again, huh? How predictable.” Hayden sneered back.  
“That’s none of your business” Violet defended. “Just get out of my way, Hayden. I’ve got stuff to do.”  
Violet walked forward intending to shove past Hayden, but was very surprised when Hayden grabbed her by the shoulder forcing them to make eye contact. Violet refused to cower. She stood her ground.  
“Oh, so back when everything was going down you could act all noble and tell him to fuck off, but the second you get lonely again you go crawling back to him? That is quite pathetic.” Hayden said.  
“What do you even care?” Violet demanded.  
“Oh what, you thought your little boy-toy would just wait around for you to decide that you were getting to cold at night. No, while you were nursing your pride he was fucking me.” Hayden said, looking satisfied.  
Then it was almost as if everything happened at once. One minute Violet was staring at Hayden emotionlessly, next minute she was straddling her and punching her repeatedly across the face.  
“How fucking dare you?!” She screamed as she hit. “First you tear my family a part and now you take this from me? FUCK YOU!”   
Violet just kept punching Hayden. Not giving her a chance to move in between hits. Violet knew she should stop, but it just felt too damn good. And besides if anyone deserved it, it was this woman here.   
“Violet!” She heard someone shout.  
She looked up and saw Tate. She froze.   
Neither one of them moved. They just stared at each other for the longest time. Then a small tear escaped from Tate’s eye. He cried because of what they had both just realised: they had been given another chance to be together, and they had thrown it away.   
. . .   
When Zoe woke up the next morning all she could think about was what Violet had said: why don’t you try googling him? Zoe felt stupid for not having done that in the first place, but now she was afraid of what she might find. She swallowed that, though. Any information was essential even if it wasn’t what Zoe wanted it to be. So, trying not to wake Kyle she opened her laptop and googled Tate Langdon. She clicked on the first link that came up.  
Zoe gasped.


	11. Chapter 10

Tate Langdon killed fifteen people. Fifteen children.  
He gravely injured several others.  
Not to mention the fact that he set his step father on fire that same day.  
Zoe had grossly underestimated what she thought she was dealing with. She had thought Tate was a stubborn, angsty teenager; not a mass murderer. She understood why Violet had been so cold now. How on earth could she ever get them to be together happily? And could she even morally let herself?  
But she wasn’t going to stop trying. Morals didn’t really apply in this situation.   
Kyle had woken up a while after her and read the article she found on Tate. He was just about as shocked as she was, but not quite as... disappointed. She had liked Tate, somewhat. He seemed a little odd, but she had thought being stuck in one house for the rest of eternity would do that to you.   
But no, turns out he’s actually a homicidal manic.  
“So you want to go back there?” Kyle asked, sounding... troubled by the idea.  
“Well, I don’t really have choice, do I?” She said, brushing her hair. Kyle looked at his feet.   
“It’s not safe.” Kyle muttered to the floor. “You should take me with you.”  
Zoe nearly dropped the hair brush.   
“That’s a bad idea” the words spilled out of her mouth.  
“What do you mean?” he asked, hurt spreading across his face.  
“It would disrupt things. They don’t even trust me as it is. If I brought in someone new all of a sudden they would shut off from me completely.” Zoe explained.  
“I can’t just let you go by yourself. You could get hurt!” he roared.  
“You know he can’t hurt me, Kyle” she said, giving him a knowing look.  
He crossed his arms and sat down on the end of the bed. For a moment Zoe thought he looked pitiful. But then she shoved the thought away.  
“Look, I’ll be back soon and you can... watch TV while I’m out.” She said, stroking his back.  
“Don’t treat me like a child.” Kyle barked. “Jesus Christ.”  
Kyle swung away from her so he had his back facing her. She felt a pang of guilt. She took a deep breath.  
“I’m sorry.” She said. He kept his back to her. “I love you.” No change.  
Zoe stared at his back, frustrated. Eventually she huffed and gave up. They both needed some space. Which was weird because not long ago they were in a space of missing each other.  
“See you tonight” she said, leaving.  
. . .  
Much like the first time Zoe had come to the murder house, she found herself staring up at it, feeling intimidated, and not knowing what the hell she was about to walk into. Just when she had almost mustered enough courage to enter the house; the door opened. Violet came out and sat down on the porch. She beckoned Zoe over to her.  
After a moment of hesitation, Zoe headed over to her. She took a seat next to Violet. They looked at each other for a few moments.  
“You did what I said, then? You googled him?” Violet said, finally.  
“Yeah. How’d you know?” Zoe asked.  
“That’s what I looked like when I found out too.” She giggled at her own joke.  
“The difference is I’m not in love with him.” Zoe said, deadpan.  
Violet opened her mouth then closed it. She looked away.   
“Shit...” Zoe said. “Sorry...”  
“Whatever” Violet replied, toying with her shoelace. “I’m sure you noticed he can be quite charming, before you find out about the whole murder thing. Believe it or not he’s done worse things than shoot a couple people. Before he fell in love with me he raped my mom. Oh yeah and let’s not forget that he murdered the gay couple that lived here before us. Just another notch on his ever-growing body count.”  
“Oh my God.” Zoe shook her head. “You must really hate him.”  
Violet’s head snapped over to look at Zoe. “No!”   
What happened in that moment was quite peculiar. Zoe saw that when Violet said that it was like a reflex reaction. Something her instincts forced her to do. And right then before she had time to think all that bitterness and betrayal that was usually written all over her face disappeared and was replaced with something Zoe couldn’t identify. But then everything came back and Violet was back to normal.  
“It’s just... complicated, okay?” Violet said, looking so... tired.  
Zoe nodded not because she understood, but because it seemed the right thing to do. In that moment a silent bond formed between them of the kind that could only be shared by two females.  
“Are you scared now?”   
Zoe whipped her head around to see Tate staring down at them, his expression dark. Before Zoe had a chance to gasp both Tate and Violet vanished.  
. . .  
Zoe had been hunting around the house for a while (colliding with a few ghosts) when it finally occurred to her to check the basement. Sure enough she found Tate sitting in a wheelchair his legs brought up to his chin. He cried as he rocked snot slithering over his lips. Zoe regarded the sight. He didn’t like a murderer or a rapist. He looked like a child.  
Outside though, that had been a whole different ordeal. How he had stood just out of the light, the shadows hitting him in the most sinister way, but somehow his eyes still managed their signature evil glint.  
“Are you scared now?” he sniffled. His words were a repetition of his ones outside, but this time it was more pathetic than menacing.  
“No” Zoe said.  
Tate paused mid-sob and looked up at her.  
“Why not?” he asked.  
“Because I’m stronger than you.” Zoe said, shrugging.  
For a moment Tate just blinked, but then he began to laugh. It started out as a gentle chuckle, but it built until eventually he ended up doubled over shrieking. Zoe just looked at him. In any other situation Zoe might have been able to see the ironic humour in her simple statement, but the manicness of his laugh kind of put her off.   
He let out one final howl and leaned back against the rocking chair. “I guess that’s true.” He said, smirking.  
“Yes...” Zoe said. “Why did you do it, Tate?”  
Tate snorted.  
“People have been asking me that same question for years. What makes you think you’ll get an answer?” He asked.  
“Okay...” Zoe succumbed. “Then why were you crying just then?” When Tate didn’t say anything Zoe continued. “I’m sure it wasn’t sorrow for me finding out your dirty secrets. What happened?”  
Tate sighed.  
“I fucked things up with Violet. Again.” He said, not making eye contact with her.  
Zoe felt her blood run cold. “Then why don’t you go fix things?” she demanded.  
Yet again Tate laughed, but this time it was dry and humourless.  
“I get the feeling I’ve done enough.” Tate said, solemnly.  
“Well, I get the feeling she needs you!” Zoe exclaimed. Where had that come from? Desperation, probably. She could imagine why Violet would need someone like Tate in her life. Knowing this created a thick layer of guilt in her stomach.  
“Why do you care so much?” Tate demanded.  
Zoe was about to lie, but then she made eye contact with him. She felt trapped by his gaze and buried under his lost, sad eyes. He didn’t look evil, he looked like a child.  
“Because...” she stammered, suddenly emotional. “Because I love someone. Someone who looks just like you.”  
For a moment Tate narrowed his eyes at her, but he must have seen the sincerity in her eyes because he sighed.  
“Yeah. You and me both.”


	12. Chapter 11

Zoe thought things were going well with Tate... or she hoped they were. Each day she would go over there and they would talk, challenge each other. It was strange the way they talked. It was similar to the way friends or acquaintances would talk. It was surprisingly easy to forget she was talking to a cold-blooded killer  
She took this to mean that they were making progress; at least someone was welcoming her. Who was she kidding? Zoe couldn’t see any way she could somehow get Tate and Violet back together. But then again it’s not like they were going anywhere.   
So, Zoe took these meetings with Tate as a good thing; even if she was just grasping at straws. For three days she had been going over to the house to talk to him. Of course, this wasn’t going down to well with Kyle.  
Every morning before she would leave, Kyle would grumble something like: “You can’t just expect me to wait here every day while you go talk to that psychopath.” Zoe would mutter a quick dismissal and make her escape. She wouldn’t get back until he was asleep.  
That day Zoe and Tate were sitting on the basement stairs. Zoe was sitting a couple of levels higher than Tate, looking down at him, studying him.   
“So let me get this straight... you died in 1994 and you were seventeen, yes?” Zoe asked, quirking an eyebrow. Tate nodded. “So that would make you thirty-seven, right? Jesus Christ you’re middle aged.”  
Her eyes widen looking at his hauntingly child like face. They chuckled and then fell into that echoing kind of silence that bounces around a room. Tate lifted his eyes to meet hers.   
“How old are you?” he asked.   
“Nineteen” she said.  
“Haha!” he roared. “I’m older than you therefore I’m superior to you.”  
“You could never be superior to me.” Zoe stated. “I’m stronger than you.”  
Much like the first time she had said that, Tate burst out laughing. But unlike the first time his laughter didn’t make him look like he was having an epileptic fit, instead he looked more... pleasant. Abruptly, the afore mentioned laughter stopped and he looked straight up at her. As his eyes bored into hers Zoe couldn’t help, but think about black holes.   
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice cracking.  
Violet leaned away from him slightly. She hoped he hadn’t noticed.   
“Maybe, I’m here for the same reason anyone else would be: I want to know why you did the grand deed.” She chuckled at her own un-funny statement, but then stopped deciding it was pointless. “Why did you do it, Tate?”  
The moment she finished her sentence, she realized she had stepped over the line. Tate’s expression immediately sharpened. She didn’t think it was possible to look threatening while staring up at someone, but Tate sure managed it. He just looked so evil.  
I’m stronger than him. She thought.  
I’m stronger than him.  
“TATE!!!”  
Their eyes tore away from each other to see where the screech had come from.  
“TATE!!!” It came again.  
Zoe sprung up to follow the yelp. She was wary of where it might be coming from, but was glad for the reason to escape. She sprinted up the stairs and out the door to where the noise was coming from.  
She froze on the porch when she found the source.  
The woman from next door –the one who looked like Fiona- had her arms wrapped around a befuddled looking Kyle and was calling out Tate’s name.  
“Oh, my dear sweet boy! What miracle is this!” she wailed, stroking his hair. “Oh Tate, thank God you have finally come back.”  
Zoe blinked in shock for a second. But then she came to her senses and marched over to where the supposedly evil Fiona-copy stood, embracing Kyle. Zoe gently drew Kyle out of her arms. She looked at Zoe as if she was Satan herself.  
“I’m sorry, but I think you might be mistaken, ma’am.” Zoe mumbled. “His name isn’t Tate.”  
The woman struck Zoe across the face causing her to fall to the ground.  
“How dare you?!” she roared. “I’m not letting anyone take away my boy from me again!”  
Kyle began to charge towards the woman until Zoe called out “Don’t!” He halted, his fists still tightly clenched. Once Zoe had restrained Kyle, it hit her. This woman was Tate’s mother.  
This woman whom was apparently pure evil.  
Looks like something run in the family.   
“This isn’t your boy, though. Your boy is in there” Zoe told her, gesturing back to the house. “Like he’s always been.”  
The woman’s eyes widened for a moment, before she collapsed to her knees. Zoe grabbed Kyle’s hand and darted off in the opposite direction.   
. . .  
Little did they know, Hayden watching the whole exchange through the window while clenching a piece of broken glass in her fist, drawing blood.


	13. Chapter 12

After Zoe had Kyle had gotten about two blocks away from the murder house Zoe pulled over the car.  
“What the fuck were you thinking?” she shouted. “I told you to wait at the motel.”  
“I didn’t wanna do that!” Kyle shouted back, childishly.  
“Kyle, there is a reason people call it the murder house: people get killed there!” she told him. “It’s dangerous.”  
“Exactly, it’s dangerous! So how come you keep going there?” he shot back.  
“I’m trying to save our relationship!” Zoe claimed.  
“OUR relationship, Zoe! Ours!” He lashed out. “You’re not the only person who’s a part of this. So how come you get to go out and risk your life every day, while I’m trapped in that motel room?! It’s bullshit!”   
Zoe was about to respond, but then Kyle leant his head against the dashboard and started sobbing. She realised Kyle was right. She had been unfair to him. She felt guilt flood through her system.   
She put a hand on his shoulder.  
“I’m sorry” she said, her voice cracking. “You can come with me tomorrow. I’m sorry. I was scared.”  
For one terrifying moment Kyle was unresponsive. He just left his head on the dashboard, but then, slowly, he lifted it and turned to look at her. Seeming satisfied with her sincerity he let the muscles in his jaw relax. He reached out and touched her cheek. She hadn’t realised she had been crying till then. His thumb wiped away a tear leaving a warm, sticky smudge.   
He pulled his hand away and leaned back against his seat in a way that seemed to say: let’s go. Zoe started the car and tried not to let anymore tears slip out. On the way she couldn’t help, but think:  
Oh God... It’s working. The hex is working.  
. . .   
Tate was feeling particularly tormented.  
He had been finding that Zoe’s visits were a good thing. Whatever it was she was there for; she helped fill the hole that Violet had left ever so slightly. And if he was being honest... he was lonely. Really fucking lonely. But ironically, he wasn’t alone in that. All the souls in the damned house were lonely.  
Despite Tate’s verdict that Zoe’s coming to see him was a good thing; the visit that day had brought some stuff up for him. He felt his already sizable self-loathing increase by about a million. He needed to get it out of his system, but being in this fucking house there was no way he could do that. He supposed he could go talk to Ben, but he didn’t think talking to him about how he had betrayed his daughter. Again.   
He sighed and leant his head against the wall. He hated the basement. He had never remembered hating it before. In fact, it had used to be a safe place for him. But right then he hated it with every fibre of his being.   
Then he heard someone scream. At first he didn’t move; it was never given that much attention when someone screamed in the house. People were always screaming. But maybe because of boredom, this scream intrigued him. So, he got up and followed the noise up the stairs.   
It was coming from the bathroom. Tate could hear that the scream was a feminine one. For a moment he thought it might be Violet, that she had gotten a hold of her razors again. But then he had forgotten that she wouldn’t have screamed.  
He burst through the door to find the bathroom covered in blood. Red splattered across the snow white linoleum. But it wasn’t Violet’s blood; it was Hayden’s. She lay sprawled across the floor, using a large piece of broken glass to scoop flesh out of her stomach. He was starting to be able to see a bit of rib.   
Knowing him, this should have been pleasing. Hayden had destroyed his last chance with Violet. He should have been gleeful at seeing her yelping and disembowelling herself. But for some reason he wasn’t. All he felt was panic.  
“Hayden, stop it!”He shouted, placing his hand over hers... as in the one that was doing the scooping.   
She looked up at him in surprise as he pried the piece of glass out of her fingers. When it was almost out of her reach she grabbed onto it again, causing her fingers to bleed.  
“What do you care?” she demanded. “WHAT DO YOU CARE?!”   
Tate didn’t respond. He managed to get the glass out of her hand and carried her out of the room.  
. . .   
Predictably, they ended up in the basement. She was lying on the only couch they had left in the house. He was on the floor, his back turned to her, sitting near her feet. Her stomach was almost returned to normal.   
“You want to tell me what that was about?” Tate demanded.  
“I’m stuck.” She said, he voice wavering.  
Tate snorted.  
“So what, we’re all stuck.” He said, harshly.  
“Yeah, but not like me” she said, wiping some snot of her face. “I’m always going to be desperate Hayden. Second best Hayden. Crazy ex-not-quite-girlfriend Hayden. And I’m always going to hurt people that don’t want me. I’ll never grow up not like you have.”  
“I have?” Tate exclaimed. “What makes you think that?”  
“I think that because if you had walked in on me doing that a few years ago you would have assisted me by pulling my intestines out. But today you helped me. That’s huge. I didn’t think you’d ever do anything good that wasn’t related to Violet.” she told him. “I could never do anything like that. I will never grow like that. So I was punishing myself.”  
Tate looked down at his feet, not sure how to respond.  
“Why did you stop me?” She asked. “Shouldn’t you hate me now?”  
“I don’t hate you.” Tate said. As soon as the words came out of his mouth he realised they were true. “I probably would have fucked it all up on my own anyway.”  
Hayden’s face was filled with nothing but astonishment. After a moment of contemplation, Tate added: “I would like to know why you did it though. I thought we agreed there was to be no love involved in this.”  
“Pfft. Don’t flatter yourself.” Hayden snorted. “I suppose it all just struck a nerve with me. Getting fucked and then having the guy run back to his wifey. I couldn’t just let you be happy and leave me alone like that.”  
They were silent for a moment.  
“You crazy bitch.” Tate said.  
They both started to laugh.  
“Not as crazy as you!” Hayden responded, giggling.  
And they laughed till her stomach was healed.


	14. Chapter 13

Zoe went to apologise to Constance the next morning.  
When Zoe had first discovered Constance she had made it a mission for herself to avoid her. She did not need any more evil people involved in her life. But upon finding out that Constance was Tate’s mother she would have taken any excuse to go and interrogate her.   
Maybe it was Constance’s supposed evilness that caused Tate to go crazy. Or maybe he was just born like that.  
Kyle said he wanted to go look round the house while she talked to Constance. She said he could through her teeth. It would probably be good for Constance to see him again, but whenever Zoe thought about Kyle going into that house alone she shuddered. But she wouldn’t refuse him. She wouldn’t argue with him on anything.   
Zoe knocked on Constance’s door ready to find her hysterical, but when Constance opened the door she look calm and collected. She was holding a little blond boy by the arm. He looked like Tate.   
“Thought you’d be back” Constance said, gesturing for her to come in.  
They sat at the kitchen table while the little boy sat on the bench playing on his Nintendo. Constance lit herself a cigarette. Zoe thought how bad it was for the little boy.  
“You want one?” Constance offered, nudging the pack over to her.  
Zoe shook her head.  
“So, you’re Tate’s mother?” Zoe blurted.  
“Barely” Constance snorted. “That little shit doesn’t know how lucky he is to have a mother like me. But that doesn’t matter. I have that little fella’ now.”  
Zoe turned her attention to the boy. “Is that your son?”  
“No.” Constance replied. “He’s Tate’s.”  
Zoe’s eyes snapped back to Constance’s.   
“Who was the mother?” Zoe demanded. “Was it Violet? –I mean, the girl who looks like me?”  
“Oh honey” Constance said, bending her head back in laughter. “No. It was her mother’s child.”  
Zoe remembered her conversation with Violet and felt her blood run cold.  
She simply couldn’t understand how someone could do something so evil and come out off it like Tate had. Tate was fine; he hadn’t been hurt at all. How was that fair? He was just left to sit there and destroy more lives with his senseless cruelty. This little boy was proof of that.  
Tate was evil. There was no questioning it at this point: he was evil... and Zoe had just let Kyle go in there alone.  
She stood up and darted out of the room, not bothering to thank Constance.  
. . .  
Kyle thought the house smelled of meat.   
He wasn’t complaining, though. He was happy just to be there. Zoe had been keeping him cooped up in that motel room since he got there like he was some prisoner. They had talked about it and she agreed to his coming. He hated that. That she had to agree to his coming like she was his mother.  
But then they had talked about it. It was resolved now... but for some reason Kyle wasn’t feeling much better.  
He clumsily made his way up the stairs of the meat-smelling house, but once he got to the top he caught movement in the corner of eye. He jerked to the left to see what seemed to be a mirror image of him. But then the mirror image took a step forward. And another.  
“Well, what have we here?” Tate muttered, studying his doppelganger. “I was wondering when I was gonna get to meet my one. It’s not fair that Violet gets to have all the fun.”  
Kyle blinked. He had no idea how to respond to that. But lucky for him, he didn’t have to. The sound of a door slamming startled Kyle and Tate enough to make them both jump. Zoe was up the stairs faster than you could read this sentence.  
“Kyle! No!” She yelped, wedging herself in between them. Both males looked at her strangely. “You have to stay away from him! He’s crazy!”  
For a moment Tate looked hurt. More than hurt: shattered. And then he was gone. Poof. He just disappeared into thin air. Kyle felt sorry for him despite himself. He looked down at Zoe expecting to see a look of malice and hate on her face, but all that was there was nothing but sheer panic. A tear slipped out from the corner of her eye.  
“Zoe!” Kyle exclaimed, pulling her into him. He felt her arms wrap around him tightly as if she never wanted to let go. She placed her chin on his shoulder.  
“He’s a monster, Kyle” she sobbed. Kyle smoothed her hair and shushed her, not entirely sure what had just happened.   
. . .  
They headed home after that. On the ride back Zoe explained what had happened trying to keep any emotion from her tone. When they arrived back at the motel she told him to go in ahead on her because she had a phone call to make.  
“Myrtle?” Zoe called into her cell phone.  
“Oh my dearest girl! How lovely it is to hear from you!” Myrtle cooed. “How is your amazing matchmaking quest going?”  
Zoe didn’t feel quite up to dealing with Myrtle’s cheerful small talk today.  
“I need you to get rid of the hex.” Zoe demanded.  
Silence.  
“I told you that is impossible...” Myrtle said.  
“Yeah, but this is magic! There is a loophole for everything!” She cried.  
“Not this” Myrtle said, grimly.  
“There has to be! Myrtle, you don’t understand! I can’t get these people back together. He is a monster and she is broken. He broke her! So, you have to help me. Please, Myrtle!” she pleaded.  
“My dear I’m sorry, but it-” Myrtle began.  
“FUCK!” Zoe shouted, throwing her phone at the ground.  
Zoe began to scream. She screamed and screamed and screamed till she lost her voice. Then, she finally gave up and just leant her head against the dashboard and cried.


	15. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: SELF HARM. COULD BE TRIGGERING.

They kept coming back of course. Despite how hopeless things were they couldn’t just give up; they loved each other too much for that. They didn’t see either of their doppelganger ghosts at all for two weeks, they supposed they were avoiding them after everything that had happened. So they just wondered around the house, hoping for something to change. Pretty much exactly like the spirits who inhabited the house.  
Every now and then at night when they lay in bed together Zoe would whisper: “It isn’t fair” and Kyle would pretend to be asleep.  
This all continued until that day. The day in the bathroom. The day were they saw the ghost girl’s eyes light up and then fade. The she faded. She faded till she wasn’t there anyore.   
. . .  
Violet was broken.  
She hated Tate. She hated him so much because now that he was gone she couldn’t breathe. She didn’t have a single second without him seeping his way into her mind and her being reminded of how evil he was and how much she depended on him. So she hated him. She hated him for how much he made her love him and she hated him for ruining her life. Afterlife. Whatever.  
The first few days without him were brutal. She was left with this agonising empty feeling. The same thought kept flowing through her head over and over again:  
This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong.  
She couldn’t take it. She cut herself to make it go away. She was annoyed by how quickly she healed so she just kept cutting and cutting. She tried to get as deep as possible, digging with the razor, cuts over lapping cuts. She thought that maybe if she cut enough then everything would just go black; that it would be like what she intended to happen when she took all those pills.   
Of course that could never happen and Violet gave up. She flung herself across the room in frustration and her head collided with the wall. So again and again she flung her head into the wall grunting at the impact. She was completely hysterical.   
The next day she knew she had to do something or she was gonna lose it completely. If she hadn’t already. She had tried falling back on her old habits and it hadn’t worked. She thought maybe she was just lonely. Maybe she just need a little bit of company.  
So she decided to fuck Travis. He was pathetic; he’d do it with anybody. Violet thought it might be just what she needed.  
So she found him and led him up to her bedroom. It was strange; he didn’t touch her. He didn’t even make any indication that he was going to. He just chattered a way happily. Violet jumped him. He responded well enough then. He kissed her fervently and gently pushed her down so he was lying on top of her. She tangled her fingers in his hair and thought good... good.  
It should have been good. She should have been pleased. But it felt like Travis was smothering her rather than kissing her and all she could see was Tate’s goddamn face.   
She shoved Travis off her causing him to awkwardly fall on his side. She crawled out of the hatch leaving him to lay there confused. As she walked down the hall she erupted into tears. She was never going to get Tate out of her system. He had ruined her. Vivian came out of one the bedrooms to stop in front of Violet.  
“Honey, what’s wrong?” Vivian asked, pulling her into an embrace.  
“I’m falling to pieces.” She sobbed into her mother’s shoulder.  
Vivian held Violet for a while, stroking her hair and whispering soothing things. Then she took her into the kitchen and gave her a bar of chocolate.  
“I’ve been saving it up. I was going to give it to you on your birthday, but I think I’ll give it to you now.” Vivian handed her the chocolate bar.  
Violet was so overwhelmed by the simple act of kindness. She felt love for her mother fill her up. She wiped away her tear and smiled, giving Vivian’s hand a squeeze.   
So she started to go and sit with her mother in the kitchen every day. Sometimes Moira or Ben would join them. It reminded Violet of when she was little girl; being taken care of by her mommy. It was good.  
Violet didn’t think about Tate. She didn’t think about her doppelgangers either even though she knew they were still coming to the house. She pushed it all back in her head till it was so far back she could pretend it wasn’t there at all.  
It was all going well. It really was. Until the bathroom.  
She woke up in her room with the sun shining through the windows and she felt so blessed that it was still her room. She thought that once she was dead other ghosts might want to spend their time in there too. But no. The room remained hers. That morning that felt really special.  
She hopped up and walked to the bathroom; more out of habit than anything else, but then stopped at what she saw. It was Tate. But he was alive. He was breathing and although she knew it was impossible she thought she could hear his heartbeat. She stood in the doorway completely paralysed or she was until he turned to looked at her. His brown eyes were like black holes sucking her to him.  
She walked up to him and hesitantly reached out to touch his cheek. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and curled into him like a small animal. She felt a tear slide out of the corner of her eye, but it wasn’t a sad tear. She, for the first time in forever, felt things were like they should be. She smiled in contentment.  
But then she saw something different. She leaned back to get a better look. Along his collarbone was a jagged scar. She looked up to meet his eyes. They weren’t like Tate’s eyes; not really. Tate’s were always cheeky and devilish and welcoming and sad and full of love. This boy’s eyes were just confused. This wasn’t Tate.  
Violet took a step back and felt her insides start to collapse.  
“Kyle!” a voice called from down the hall. Zoe entered the bathroom and stopped when she saw Violet. She looked like she was going to say something, but Violet wasn’t about to give her the chance. So she faded away till it was like she was never there at all.


	16. Chapter 15

“Tate, do you know anything about what has been going on with Violet?” Ben asked.  
Tate felt himself deflate. He had been worried the moment he entered Ben’s office. He had thought his voice had shaken when he had called him.  
“What do you mean?” Tate asked. He honestly didn’t know. He had been doing as he should and staying away from Violet. He had hurt her enough as it was.  
“Violet has been sitting in her room for days. She hasn’t moved, she hasn’t spoken. Even me and Viv can’t get a rise out of her.” Ben told him. Ben’s eyes were red-rimmed and his nails had been bitten down to their nubs. Violet’s situation must have been pretty serious if Ben was getting this stressed out about it.  
Pity you were never that worried when you were all still alive. Tate thought.  
Tate quickly pushed the thought away. He was hardly in a position to judge Ben.  
“Do you know what this is all about?” Ben asked, raising an eye brow. Tate looked at his feet and Ben groaned. “What did you do this time, Tate?”  
“Remember when I said I was gonna have sex with Hayden?” Tate asked. “Well, yeah I did that. Violet found out. I think things are really over between us now.”  
Tate found himself out of nowhere overwhelmed by his emotions. This was the first time he had ever really said it all out loud. He fiddled with his fraying shoelaces and tried not to let any tears escape from the corners of his eyes. He heard Ben suck in his breath and get up to start pacing panicked laps around the room.  
“Listen, I don’t even know if it has anything to do with-” Tate started desperately.  
“No you shut up!” Ben shouted, whirling around to face him. Ben’s eyes blazed with anger so potent in nearly cut straight through Tate. “You knew what you meant to her! Tell me when, Tate?! When are you gonna stop fucking up my family?!”  
“I’m sorry-” Tate tried.  
“Don’t bullshit me now, Tate!” Ben said, walking over to the nearest wall and slumping against it. Everything about the man screamed defeat. Tate even thought he saw him sob.   
For a moment, Tate went back in time. In his mind he was back when the Harmons’ had all just died, he was in the same room and Ben was shouting at him, telling him he was psychopath; someone incapable of feeling remorse. Tate blinked the memory away.  
“Dr Harmon...” he began. “I’m sorry and I know you won’t believe me when I say that, but that doesn’t change the fact that I am so sorry. You are good people and... I didn’t know that when you first came here. I didn’t even know what a good person looked like. But now I can honestly say that I wish you hadn’t come here. I wish I had never met any of you. I wish you’d been given the chance to live. You didn’t deserve any of this. I’m sorry.”  
Tate turned away and left the room. In leaving he had a strange feeling of grief, like someone had died, but wasn’t going to come back. He knew what he had said wouldn’t change anything. That didn’t seem to matter. He just needed to get the words out, needed Ben to hear him.   
He felt almost cleansed. He hadn’t made any excuses for himself he had just lay his shame out on display and admitted his wrong doings. I had hurt, but that was what he had needed to hurt. That was the only way he could find anything close to real redemption.  
Right then, he felt as if he was on the right track.  
. . .  
“Your clone is jacked” Hayden said, her mouth curling up in a grimace. “He's got all these weird scars and half the time he groans instead of talking.”  
Hayden and Tate were taking part in what had become their new routine. They would sit on the floor in the basement. Hayden would chatter at him and he would stare vacantly at the wall, brooding and occasionally make snappy comments. Nothing sexual ever happened. You might even be able to call them friends.  
“Seriously, he practically foams at the mouth.” Hayden went on. “I don’t know how that girl can handle him slobbering all over her.”  
Tate didn’t respond. Hayden rolled her eyes.  
“So... have you seen Violet yet?” Hayden asked, not making any attempt at easing into the subject. “She looks like shit.”  
“No. I think I’m just going to keep my distance. I’ve done enough, haven’t I? I would just hurt her more.” Tate said, attempting to keep his voice casual. He stared down at his fists.  
“Maybe you could help her?” Hayden proposed.  
Tate shook his head.   
“I doubt it.” He said. “Y’know... Ben is pretty cut up about it.”  
“Hmm...” Hayden mused. “I don’t care.”  
They way Hayden spoke it was as if she was just realizing the words were true. She let out a surprised, high pitched giggle and Tate raised an eyebrow.  
“Isn’t that awesome?” she asked, throwing her head back in delight. “I held on to him for so long. I don’t really even know why. It wasn’t really anything about him. I just... I think I was scared of what I would become without him. Like if I didn’t have someone to love me everything would become meaningless... but y’know what, Tate?”  
“What?” Tate asked.  
“I feel free now. Now that I have finally let him go I feel free.” She said, her voice tinged with joy. She looked up and studied Tate carefully. “Do you think you could ever have this? That you could ever just get over her?”  
When she asked him that Tate felt very small. He knew the answer to her question immediately. His love for Violet hadn’t been something made out of wanting to be loved. He simply loved her. It was like she owned him from the second she saw him. And even if he had to spend eternity in loneliness, always yearning for her that wouldn’t change a thing. He was completely stuck in love.  
“No” he replied. “I think I’m doomed.”


	17. Chapter 16

Zoe woke to find Kyle sitting on the chair on the other side of the room, fiddling with the computer. She rubbed her eyes and got up. She had a shower, got dressed, but Kyle didn’t move a muscle.   
“I think I’m just going to stick around here today.” Kyle told her.  
Zoe looked up in shock, but he had his eyes fixed on the laptop screen.   
“Oh... Okay.” She replied in a small voice.   
Kyle continued to be unresponsive. Zoe’s stomach sank. Slowly she approached him and knelt down beside him. Finally he looked at her, but before he could say anything she tilted her head up and kissed him. At first he was rigid but he eventually relaxed into her, lazily winding his fingers in her hair. The kiss ended and Zoe stared up at him.  
“I love you” she told him. “You still love me too, don’t you?”  
Zoe couldn’t remember ever feeling so vulnerable as she did in that moment. With Kyle staring down at her, holding her heart in his hands. She felt more scared every second he didn’t reply.   
“Yeah.” He finally said. “Of course. It’s just...”   
He trailed of and looked away.  
“It’s just what?” Zoe coaxed her voice breaking.  
He looked back at her. Looked her straight in the eye.  
“I’m just not really sure if that matters now.” He said.  
It was like the wind had been knocked from her lungs. She got up and left, slamming the door.  
. . .  
Zoe was furious.  
She was so, so angry. Not only at Kyle for giving up on them (even though she knew he couldn’t help it), but at Tate and Violet for not just doing one fucking decent thing and helping them out (even though she knew they didn’t owe her anything.)Most of all she was angry because she knew if she stopped being angry then she would break down and surrender. Just stop the car and let misery take her. She couldn’t handle that. If she was gonna go down, she was going down fighting.   
She drove to the house at such an obnoxious speed it was a miracle she didn’t get into an accident. Once she reached the house she stomped down to the basement, making sure to make as much noise as she could; stopping and dragging her feet.  
“TATE!” she screamed. “TATE GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE!”  
Nothing.   
“TATE SHOW YOUR FACE OR I’LL HEX YOU AND MAKE YOUR ENTIRE AFTER LIFE AGONY!” she yelled, her breathing starting to elevate.  
“It already is.”  
Violet sucked in a sharp gasp and spun around to face Tate. The sight of him standing in front of her caused her to snap. She flung her fists at his chest and kept hitting him and hitting him. It was like she had lost control of her limbs and her whole being was determined to tear him a part.   
“Zoe! Zoe, stop!” He said, struggling to grab her wrists and pin her up against the wall. She looked him right in the eye and gave him a withering look.  
In less than a second Tate’s feet were sliding across the ground at a speed that could only be described as magical. His back slammed against the wall and he collapsed.  
For a few moments he lay there, motionless. Then he started to stir and clambered awkwardly to his feet. There was blood dripping down his face from a scrape he received from the impact.   
“Well, that’s not fair” he rasped. “You used your witchy powers on me.”  
“Fuck you!” she shouted, her arms flying about, savagely. “Why, Tate?”  
Tate’s eyes widened slightly.  
“Tell me why you did all those things, really? And no fucking around this time. I need to know! This is something I need from you” she demanded. “Tell me!”  
He remained silent and shuffled his feet. He wouldn’t make eye contact with her. She slumped her shoulders in defeat.  
“Jesus, Tate don’t you know you fucked up everything up?!” she cried.  
“I know. Trust me I know-”  
“No you don’t! I’m not just talking about your life. Or Violets! I’m talking about those children you killed. I’m talking about the woman you raped. I’m talking about me, Tate! Did you ever fucking think about that?”  
“Yes of course I do! Every day!”   
She was about to belch out another reply, but then stopped and really took in his words. It was then that she realised they both had tears streaming down their faces. She felt her anger slowly start to leak out of her body only to be replaced with a queasy, sick feeling.  
“Then, why? She said, her voice cracking. “Why on earth would you do all those monstrous things you did?”   
She looked in his eyes to see what was probably a parallel of how she looked. His eyes were red and shining from tears. Sobs racked his body causing the whole thing to shake. But he never said anything.  
Zoe felt something in her sinking and before she knew it she was sinking along with it. It wasn’t a dramatic and impactful fall to her knees. She just slowly lowered to the ground, feeling anchored to it. She buried her face in her knees and thought: oh my god... I have never felt so helpless.  
The last thing she expected was to hear him sit down beside her. She looked up and to see him staring straight at her, unwavering. So for a while they just starred at each other in complete silence, aside from their jerking sobs.   
Finally, he spoke.  
“Okay” he told her. “Okay.”  
She felt herself let out a long, strenuous exhale.  
“I... I didn’t know what... well um... honestly what goodness was. I know that sounds odd, but it’s just... it’s true. My Mom certainly never showed me any of it and I guess I just wasn’t exposed to it. I started to think it was just a myth. So I shot those kids. I shot them because I just... I couldn’t figure out what the fucking point was. Then all the rest was for Nora.”  
She blinked. She couldn’t process what he was telling her. It wasn’t what she had expected to hear. Or even what she wanted to hear. She wanted him to talk about getting bullied and lashing out and that driving him insane. She could have compartmentalized that. But this, she didn’t even know what to think about this.  
“Nora?”  
“She was one of the only people who was kind to me. All she wanted was a baby, but he couldn’t leave the house” Tate sniffed. It took Zoe a few seconds for Zoe to put the pieces together and realise that Nora was one of the ghosts. “So I killed two gay guys that used to live here. And then I raped Violet’s mom.”  
Tear after tear slid down Zoe’s face. She had no idea how to respond and even if she did she didn’t feel capable of doing anything, but crying hysterically. Tate was shaking.  
“I’m sorry” he said. “I’m so sorry.”  
“All of that’s wrong!” she told him.   
“I know that now” He sobbed.   
“I have to go” Zoe choked, turning away from him. “I need to get out of here.”  
“Zoe, wait! Wait Zoe please!” he begged, but Zoe ignored him and sprinted up the stairs. Once she reached the top she collapsed. She cried and cried. She cried for the broken boy bellow her, she cried for the girl who loved him, she cried for herself, she cried for Kyle, she cried because they weren’t strong enough to cope with this affliction of love; none of them were.  
Over her sobs she heard someone breathing. She looked up to see Violet; across the room from her, watching her weep with wide eyes. Zoe exhaled a heavy exhale. She knew she had no right to do what she did next, but she was coming apart.  
Zoe got to her feet and straightened her back. She stalked across the room her feet making echoy pats on the wooden floor. Once there were only a few inches between her and Violet she spoke.  
“He’s down there” She said, her voice cracking. “You need to go to him now and tell him you love him.”  
Violet’s eyes widened.  
“Are you fucking kidding me? Why on earth would I do that?” she demanded.  
“Because I need you to!” Zoe screamed, gripping her hair.   
“Well, I’m sorry but that is really not my problem.” Violet replied, rolling her eyes.  
“You love him, don’t you?” Zoe asked, lowering her voice.  
“I... I...” Violet stammered.  
“But you can’t forgive him.” Zoe cut her off. “That’s your problem isn’t it?”  
Violet looked away and nodded.   
“Well, you don’t have to worry. He’s not that person anymore, Violet!” Zoe exclaimed.  
“So that makes everything he did okay, then?!” Violet yelled. “You are seriously sick!”  
“That’s not what I’m saying!” Zoe yelled back. “You are going to be stuck here forever. You really want to deny yourself forever just to punish him. That’s not helping anyone. It’s just more pain.”  
Violet opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it.   
“He’s trying, Violet.” Zoe told her, her voice more gentle. “He’s trying to be a better person. You’re just standing still.”  
A tear slid out from the corner of Violet’s eye. “I want you to go now” she said. “GO!”  
“Okay.” Zoe said. “I’m sorry.”   
And then she was gone.


	18. Chapter 17

Zoe was bawling so hard on the way home that she could hardly see the road. So it was a miracle that she saw a frantic-looking blonde man running down the side-walk. She pulled over and hopped out to get a better look.  
“Kyle?” she called, sniffing.  
He came to an awkward stop and spun around. His clothes and hair were windblown and his breathing was coming out in hoarse puffs. His skin always remained the same chalky white, but if it was possible for him to become flushed he would have.   
His eyes widened to match Zoe’s when he saw her and not quite as hectically as before, jogged up to stand beside her.  
“What are you doing out here?” she asked, her voice cracking.  
“I had to find you” he told her. He began to mop up her tears with his sleeve.  
“So you tried to run all the way from the motel to the house? Again?” she asked.   
He took a second to think about it. “Yeah” he finally replied and then began to laugh. Then she began to laugh. They became a choir of laughter.   
“I had to tell you” he began, once their laughter had died down, “I didn’t mean what I said.”  
“I know” Zoe said, realizing that she actually meant it. “It was the hex.”  
She went to hug him, but he grabbed her by the shoulders so she would look at him. She gasped at his sudden movement, but didn’t pull away.  
“I love you” he said. She nodded and started to something, but he put a finger to her lips. “I know that the hex brought us together and I know that the hex is the reason we both even exist. But I also know that I love you and I’m not willing to let it destroy us.”  
“I love you too, but this might be bigger-” she started, but then his hand was covering her mouth again.  
“I wasn’t finished.” He said. “I know it’s gonna be hard. It’s gonna be really fucking hard. But look at everything we’ve already been through. We went through so much, but we got through it and it was worth it! Honestly Zoe, I would rather spend eternity fighting with you, than spend it in peace without you because I believe in us.”   
He stopped talking and took a breath, never breaking eye contact with her.   
“Are you finished now?” Zoe asked, her breath almost as rugged as his now.   
“No” he said. And then he was kissing her. Zoe felt a familiar warmth feeling invade her stomach. She melted into him, all her senses drowning in him. He then pulled away and she felt at loss from him immediately.   
“Now” he said “I’m finished.”  
Zoe took a second to look at him. Her eyes mapping across him, taking everything in.   
“I love you so much” she said, softly. “Oh... fuck it! Let’s give it a go.”   
. . .  
Kyle was right; it was hard. It was really, really hard.  
Of course they hadn’t expected it to be anything else. And they were prepared –to an extent. When they arrived back at Ms. Robichaux’s they could feel something was different. They were constantly on edge and argued more. They became more accident prone which was bother, but really the least of their worries; they had already proved that death couldn’t separate them. What was really a problem was that their love was rotting.  
Not fading, God no that was impossible. It was just shaping itself into an altogether different kind of love. Rather than what they felt at the start; that light, joyous love they started to feel something painful. Something that tightened their stomachs and tugged at their chests. The evidence was in the way they fucked. After they were done they would find bruises, bite marks, and scratches signifying this new, ever-growing urge to tear each other open and crawl inside.   
Jesus they would think This must be what it’s like for them.   
Still they clung to each other, like two lost children.   
But then after a few months things got better. There was no immediate change, no light bulb moment. It was a gradual thing. So gradual that they didn’t notice it till after it happened. They weren’t the same as they were before; which was almost a good thing. What they once were was fragile, but now that they had suffered together they felt that what they had was concrete. And they were happy, they really were.   
Sometimes they thought about the two people out there who would be feeling the exact same thing as them and they smiled.


	19. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter! Thank you for reading!

It took her a few months to make up her mind. No that’s not right. Really she always knew what was going to happen in the end, but she had to sort through her head before she could act. She found that she had to forgive herself for forgiving him. That‘s why she went to talk to her mom.

Things had been uneasy between her and her sad little family since her breakdown. They were all treating her as if she was made of glass. She had to remind herself she couldn’t blame them. She was the one who had gone tropo. Now she would have to pick up the pieces. It kinda sucked having to take the rap for an action that didn’t even feel like it was voluntary, but that was just the way things were she supposed.

“Momma” Violet said.

Vivian’s eyes shot up at her from across the kitchen counter. She hadn’t called her mother such a childish name since she was about three. But she need to right now. She needed to be a kid being guided by her mother just one more time.

“Yes, sweetie” Vivian’s voice came out raspy with astonishment. 

“Would you forgive me if I went back to Tate?” Violet asked, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.

Vivian looked into her daughter’s eyes and really focused; properly searching them. Then she leaned back, but continued to study her; probably trying to figure out what had brought all this on. Violet felt exposed under the weight her eyes. Violet straightened her shoulders and awaited any judgments that might be coming.

“Well, that depends, honey” Vivian said. “Why do you want to go back to him?”

Violet released a breath. She wished Vivian had just shouted at her or even hit her or something. Anything would be better than this. Having to lay bare all the ways she had betrayed her mother. 

“I’m so sorry, Mom” she said, tears beginning to flow out. “You didn’t see the bits of him I did. He can be a good person. It’s like the bad is melting off him. I’ve hated him so much for what he did. But I love him, Mom. Jesus Christ, I love him.”

Violets buried her head in her elbows in an attempt to shield her true, ugly self. She sobbed and sobbed into her arms and wondered if she had ever actually been that normal if angsty child that first came to this house. That child with a chance. She gasped and jolted when she felt Vivian’s arms come around her.

She nearly shoved her off; wanting to tell her to get as far away from her as possible. She didn’t deserve her mother’s compassion or even her love.

“Don’t mom” she cried. “Why aren’t you screaming at me? Why don’t you hate me? Don’t you get how fucked up this is? I want to forgive him! After everything he’s done I’m still following him around like some stupid girl from a vampire book.”

“Shhhhh... Vi.” Vivian said, stroking her arms. “Things are different here. If we were all still alive and you wanted to do this I’d tell you to move on. But things aren’t different. I know this is all you can do and that’s okay.”

“But Mom!” she shouted. “What about everything he did you? What about all the people he hurt?”

“Well, Vi honestly... we’ve been in this house so long that I really don’t care about what happened before. I don’t have the energy” Vivian said, the corner of her mouth twitching. “I’m not the same person I was when all that happened. I know you aren’t. And I’m pretty sure that boy isn’t either. Really that’s all that matters: we can’t justify the past, but we also can’t let it damn away what little futures we can have here.”

Violet pushed her mother away; not unkindly. She sat up straight and wiped her eyes. This was the part where she had to be strong. She stared Vivian straight in the eye.

“If you honestly believe that boy has changed and wants to change more then you need to go to him. Because that’s a very rare thing here” Vivian told her, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear. 

Violet nodded. She was trying to look determined, but she could feel betraying tears slipping out from the corner of her eye. Vivian smiled and Violet reached out for her hand. 

“I do love you and Dad, you know” Violet said, her voice shaky.

“Yeah I know” Vivian said. “It would be nice if you would remind us more often, though.”

Violet laughed and nodded again.

“You got it.”  
. . .

Violet felt every muscle in her throat tighten. She was standing in her bedroom. She had checked the hallways and found no other ghosts lurking around. It was nice and private. All she had to do now was call his name.

However she was hesitating and stalling. She was nervous. She had no idea what was about to happen. She half- hoped and half-feared that it would be like before. All shared cigarettes, bruising kisses, long talks about weird and slightly morbid things most people wouldn’t understand, and most of all love. Love love love. 

But how many years had it been since they had been together like that? Sure they had shared the odd game of scrabble and small talk yet they had always been fraught with guilt and restraint. Did she even know how to be with him properly anymore? 

There is only one way to find out she thought. 

She grew in a deep breath and squeezed her shut. 

“Tate!”

She waited to feel his eyes on her or hear him shuffle into the room, but nothing came. She opened her eyes and scanned the room. Nothing.

“Tate?” She called again, frowning. 

This was weird. Whenever she called Tate (Not that it happened often) he would come running like a lost puppy. But now he was absent? It looked like she would have to look around for him today. 

She knew he hung out in the basement, so she went there. She hated the place. She hated Norah and the doctor and most of all Hayden. But she went down there anyway.

“Tate?!” She called. She searched through the dank rooms, but had no luck. They were all empty which was an unusual occurrence. It was a place in the basement that was most of the time filled with voices or screams or weeping. Worry stirred in her chest. Where was everybody? Where was he? 

“Tate?!” she screamed. 

“What do you want?” 

His voice came from behind her. She span around with start. As she caught her breath she found herself dumbfounded. She looked at Tate. She really looked at him in a way she hadn’t let herself in a very long time and all her earlier fears melted away. She took in all the tiny details and all the less tiny details. She allowed herself to see his beauties and his faults and was shocked to find she loved all of it. She loved every inch of him of him just as much as she had all those years ago. And as cheesey as it sounded she didn’t think that was ever going away.   
He raised an eyebrow and looked at her as if she had just taken up two parking spots with one car. 

“Well?” he demanded.

“I came to see you” she said, short of breath. He snorted.

“Why?” he asked. 

She didn’t think she could explain. Hell, she didn’t really want to. She wanted to touch him. She began to edge towards him and she saw his eyes widen. She stopped when there was only a few millimetres of space between them. He drew in a rugged breath.

“Vi...” he grunted.

She leaned up and pressed her lips against his. He responded more enthusiastically than she would have thought. He gripped her shoulders and kissed her back fervently. It was so urgent her head didn’t have time to catch up. But oh it felt so right. But then he was pushing her away and she was too disoriented to comprehend what was happening, let alone to say anything. 

“No Violet” he said, sounding desperate.

He was still had her by the shoulder, but was holding her at arm’s length away. He had a concentration in his eyes that she wasn’t familiar with. He looked as if he was trying to work something out in his head. She frowned. 

“What is it?” she asked. 

He panted. He looked as if he was trying very hard to think of what to say. She waited impatiently.

“I can’t do this, Violet” he said, at last.

She felt her stomach drop. This was not something she had anticipated. Not even a little bit. 

“What do you mean” she asked, tears pooling in her eyes.

“I love you Violet. Always have, always will” he told her. She smiled a watery smile and nodded. “But I can’t do this tug of war thing with you anymore. I’m glad you sent me away that day. That was the right thing to do. I see that now. It might not have been why you did it, but we can’t always be frozen in something that is just the same circle of pain. I can’t go back to who I was before. I need to become something outside of this.”

He walked over to the wall opposite them and hid his face in his hands as if he was denying her presence completely. His shoulders shook and she knew he was crying. She stood, motionless. She was still attempting to process what he said. But once she had put the words down over and over again inside her head she smiled. That was really all that she needed to hear. 

She inched towards Tate until she was up close to him, but he wouldn’t turn around; wouldn’t look at her. 

“I know, Tate” she murmured. “We can’t keep going on like it was. I don’t wanna end up like Chad or Norah or any of them. We may be just ghosts, just leftovers, but I don’t want to dwell on that anymore. It’s time to move on.”

He didn’t say anything, but she saw his shoulders tense. 

“But we don’t have to do it alone” she pointed out, a tear taking her by surprise and rolling down her cheek. “And the truth is, that in spite of everything… I still love you. That never went away.”

Violet sniffed and wiped the lone tear off her cheek. She braced herself for his response; whatever that might be. But he just stood there, unmoving. For a moment, fear rose in in her stomach. Perhaps it was really over and their time had passed.Violet didn’t want believe that. Sure, she knew that she would be okay and be able to do what she needed to without him and she was actually coming to believe that he would be too. But that didn’t change the fact that his smiles and jokes and touches would make her life (well, afterlife) something really very extraordinary. She was making a decision to want him she was very surprised to realise. And it might have been a bad decision, but she would make it over and over again. 

But maybe after all this time he had grown tired of her. It had been years. And it was probably all getting a bit tedious for him. Violet felt as if her heart had been put in a trash compactor. But then, Finally, he spoke.

“Okay” he rasped. 

And with that one word Violet felt all her fears and doubts disappear. 

“Okay” he repeated, this time with more conviction. He turned around to face her. They looked at each other for a second and then he grabbed her hand. Then they started to laugh. They laughed and laughed and laugh just out of sheer glee that what they weren’t feeling dirty and desperate anymore. They were just two people who were awkwardly and hopelessly in love. And it was pure. That was a word they hadn’t been able to use to describe anything in a long time.

“That easy, huh?” Tate asked, raising an eyebrow. Violet snorted.

“I really hope we don’t fuck up this time” she said.

“You kidding? With our awesome track record you can tell-” he began, a cheeky grin on his face and his voice dripping with sarcasm. 

“Oh, shut up” Violet said.

She silenced him with a kiss.

 

. . .

They had to see for themselves. 

Cordelia had not been happy with them. Leaving again and because of nothing except a hunch. But she seemed to understand it was something they had to do, so she let them go with nothing but a grumble. 

When Queenie found out the we leaving again she snorted and rolled her eyes. “When are you two gonna stop letting your twilight bullshit get in the way of the coven? Jesus.”

Unsurprisingly, Myrtle was the most supportive. She sent them off with an apologetic: “Reach for the stars, my darlings. I’m sure you will get everything you want.”

But it didn’t matter what any of them thought because they were there now. In L.A, standing hand-in-hand outside the murder house. The whole thing felt so surreal to Zoe. She had thought they had put this place away, but it looked like there was still a bit of closure to be had. 

“You ready?” Kyle asked.

Zoe looked away from the house that was not any less daunting to her than it was the first time she entered it and back at her boy friend. She smiled.

“As I’ll ever be” she replied. She leaned over and kissed him. 

It wa short, but deep. When she pulled away Kyle asked her: “What was that for?”

“Luck” Zoe said, shrugging. “And because I y’know, love you and stuff.”

Kyle snorted and nudged her with his shoulder. 

“We should go in” he said. She took a deep breath and nodded. 

When they entered the lobby Zoe was nearly knocked over by a sense of deja vu. It had the same eerie silence as the first day she came. It was still coated in shadows and cobwebs. It was all the same as it had been before (aside from the fact that there was no Hayden hanging from the chandelier. ) 

“Um… hello… Tate and Violet?” Zoe called, leaning all of her weight on to one leg.

There came no reply.

“We could try the basement… or her bedroom?” Zoe proposed. Kyle didn’t reply. He just looked at the ground in disappointment. She sighed. She was about to offer some reassuring words when their doppelgangers materialized in front of them. 

“Well look who it is!” Tate exclaimed, his voice creating echoes through the room. “Long time no see.”

Kyle’s face brightened like a child’s on christmas day. Zoe’s eyes just about popped out of her head.

“Hey” Violet said. “What’s up?”

Violet’s ridiculously casual greeting did not do much to calm Zoe from the fright they had given her. Zoe could do little more than splutter. After a few moments of struggling to come out with a coherent sentence she managed to choke out:

“Well, um, we were wondering-”

“If Tate and I were back together?” Violet inquired.

Zoe and Kyle nodded eagerly.

“Yeah” Violet said, shrugging. 

Zoe heard Kyle let out a massive exhale of relief and rejoice that was identical to her own. It was almost an automatic thing that they were in each others arms. Zoe almost couldn’t believe it. Everything was going to be alright now. They could really just be together. 

After what felt like a long time, they pulled apart just so much that they could see each other’s faces. In unison they realised that they had tears streaming down their cheeks and laughed. He kissed her. 

“Ermhrm” Violet cleared her throat, after they had been kissing for a little while.

The two jerked a part. Tate and Violet had their heads turned away, politely. Zoe wiped her tears away and giggled in embarrassment. 

“Sorry” Zoe said.

Violet gave her a little smile. 

“No worries” she said.

“Hey Zoe?” Tate called. Zoe shifted her gaze over to him as she continued to mop up her face.

“I just wanted to say… thank you” he said. His eyes sparkled with sincerity. “I don’t know where I would be now if you hadn’t shown up here.”

Zoe felt her heart clench. She was surprised by the effect his words had on her. Somehow she had became very fond of Tate Langdon. It seems terrible because he had killed and committed about a million other crimes. But then so had Kyle. And so had she. 

“Thank you too” Zoe replied. “I’m glad I met you.” 

Hesitantly, she leaned forward and hugged him. The embrace was an awkward one initially, but it didn’t take long for them both to relax into it and hold each other even tighter. 

They all chatted for a while after that and when it was time for them to go Kyle shouted a merry: “Have fun haunting!” on the way out. Tate wrapped his arm around Violets shoulder as they watched them go. She smiled up at him. Tate was sure that the couple would go off to be very happy and for the first time in a long time -he thought he might too.


End file.
